[audio:http://ericarcher.net/media/2012-1-29_bodytronix_29th_st_ballroom.mp3]

That 808 you’re hearing isn’t made by Roland. Half of Austin-based techno duo Bodytronix, Eric Archer is a self-taught electrical engineer whose analog tinkering is responsible for much of the group’s classic sound, inspired by equal parts Intergalactic FM machine funk and the talkboxing of Zapp. His counterpart Erich Ragsdale backs up Archer’s 808 clone with a dose of XoxBox acid bass, TR-606 rhythm reinforcements, Multivox laser stabs, and copious amounts of 909 claps tweaked from an analog source with added delay, peek, and filter mods, a unit dubbed The Clapraca.

Gear fetishism aside, a sparse peppering of human elements keeps their sound from erring towards the industrial. Synthesizers are oscillated to emulate vocal inflections, melodies are jittery but loosely swung, when anyone sings it’s through a thick …