Critic's Review
Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
The special Epok mini-CD was given away to the 999 people attending Richie Hawtin's end-of-the-century New Year's Eve party in Detroit, Epok. Each of the 999 limited-edition CDs are hand-numbered and include one musical track, "FUSE vs. Plastikman: Krossover," five Shockwave animation files, and two MPEG video files. The five Shockwave files along with the MPEG video file "Where Were You?" function as nostalgic souvenirs of the highly anticipated party, which was held at the short-lived club Motor. Shortly after having his party Kompressed canceled, Hawtin aired the two-minute commercial for Epok, "Where Were You?," at 11:59 P.M. November 10, 1999, on a Detroit television station. The musical track on Epok, "FUSE vs. Plastikman: Krossover," is an unreleased nine-minute live recording from spring 1993. A beautiful track with soft synths lingering in the background and some dense electro-style drum programming along with additional synthesizer melodies entering periodically throughout, "FUSE vs. Plastikman: Krossover" sounds reminiscent of Plastikman tracks such as "Are Friend's Electrik?" and "Lastrak." It's a shame Hawtin doesn't release more of these archived live recordings.
