Every Dog Has Its Day

by Jason BirchmeierPackaged in a solid gold sleeve with no ornamentation, Jeff Mills' double 12" LP Every Dog Has Its Day is far from modest, despite its humble façade. Released around the same time as his Lifelike and Art of Connecting albums and his announcement about releasing a soundtrack for the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, one cannot help but sense that Mills had high hopes for the 20th release in his Axis series. The eight songs on this record improve upon the precedent set with his From the 21st album, focusing on relaxed, mid-tempo rhythms and a heavy atmosphere of synths. The aggressive tendencies of his earlier Axis records are notably absent, as is the blatant experimentation that often creeps into his non-Purpose Maker releases. So, in a way, this is Mills at his most accessible, not too hard and not too complex, but rather calm and pretty.