Few labels can claim to have given a genre its name, but Birmingham’s Network Records did precisely that, importing Detroit techno to the UK in the late eighties and championing it before anyone had coined the term. Now the label is reviving its catalogue, and this four-track EP from Neal Howard—released via Kool Kat/Network—gathers remastered versions of two of his most enduring productions, Indulge and To Be Or Not To Be.
Howard was an unusual figure in that era’s landscape, a producer who bridged Detroit and Chicago without ever fully belonging to either. The pair of Indulge mixes showcase his crossover instincts at their most charming. The Club House Mix, over seven minutes of it, unfolds around gospel-tinged piano chords and a warm, rolling bassline, the drums swinging with a shuffle that nods to Chicago whilst the string stabs carry unmistakable Motor City polish. The Deep House Mix is the flip side of the same coin—slower, sparser and dubby, the chords left to breathe over a deeper groove as Howard lets the track’s soul do the work rather than its momentum.
The headline draws arrive with the two takes on To Be Or Not To Be. Derrick May’s Mayday Mix is the one you’ll still find in record boxes in another thirty years: expectant, chord-led and impossibly swung, its sci-fi strings and restless hi-hats building a tension that never quite resolves. The Bad Boy Bill Mix is a straighter proposition—jacking harder, hitting earlier, and sounding every bit the peak-hour Chicago club cut it was designed to be.
Judged as what it is—a heritage re-release rather than new production—the EP is a small triumph. The remastering adds body and clarity without scrubbing away the grit, and hearing both tracks in one place, with two of their finest remixes alongside, is a reminder of how far ahead of the curve Network’s signings were. For those who never caught these records first time around, this is the definitive entry point; for those who did, it’s a very welcome reunion.
