Audio By Carbonatix
Michael Marsicano, who goes by DJ Micro (below), has a larger catalog of CDs than all but a few of his peers. He made his reputation in the early ’90s courtesy of Caffeine, a record label and related East Coast club night that helped him catch a buzz that’s sustained him ever since. His debut disc, 1997’s Coast to Coast, came out on Roadrunner Records, an imprint better known for Slipknot-style metal. Later, he moved to Moonshine, which unleashed half a dozen Micro bursts, including 1998’s Micro-Tech-Mix, the first in a series of ultra-danceable collections. Tech-Mix 5, from New York-based System Recordings, brings the progression up-to-date with a propulsive merger of trance and breakbeat culled from thumpers like M.I.K.E. (“Massive Motion”), George Hales (“Isolation”) and others. Still, the finest number on the album, “The World Around Me,” is credited solely to DJ Micro — a good sign. While Marsicano isn’t often credited as a dance-scene innovator, he’s a popularizer and survivor of the first order. To put it another way, Micro is no small-timer.
