Wolfgang Voigt is marking 20 years of Kompakt with a return to one of his best-loved noms de plume. 

Voigt’s had more aliases than you’ve had hot dinners, but Mike Ink was probably his most immediately recognisable handle for the bulk of the 1990s. The Ink project began life in 1991-2 as an outlet for a string of exuberant acid releases. Particularly in contrast to his clinical Studio 1 work, much of the material is thrilling freewheeling; according to Voigt, “Sometimes I play 303 like Jimi Hendrix his guitar with his tongue.” Releases followed on Force Inc. (see 1994’s seminal Ink‘s Respect), Warp and Sähkö. As his Studio 1 and GAS aliases started to gather more attention, Voigt devoted less time to the Ink alias, although sporadic singles emerged in the early 2000s.

Kompakt are 20 years old to the day, and Voigt’s celebrated the anniversary by announcing a handful of Mike Ink “remakes, reworks, remix releases” for 2013. The The Best Of Mike Ink Is Dead  12″ is the first of the bunch, and features three edits of minimal brute ‘Einstand Im Jenseits’. The original is a forceful bit of caveman acid, and the “Gabber Mix” and “Acid Mix” both do what they say on the tin. Head here to stream the track.

The label have also made a free Voigt & Voigt track, ‘Der Keil NRW’, available to download below. The label are also about to release Kompakt 20 Jahre Kollektion , the first in a string of retrospectives due over the course of the year . The Best Of Mike Ink Is Dead is out now – happy birthday, folks.