yeah, it's kind of impossible reviewing compilations, but, they seem
to be hailing down at top speed these days. here goes a few:
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Opensource Code (source records)
(CD comes with a big sticker for De:Bug on it, so I'm imagining this
hails somehow from that camp.)
the star slots are filled by the likes of Akufen, Jan Jelinek,
Brinkmann, Lippok and Monolake. Less familiar (to me) are the likes
of s.e. berlin, bton, smyglyssna and studio pankow.
Unexpectedly the bulk of the stuff here fits the category of pleasant
background music. Light robot drumming, lotta mild breakbeat stuff,
with vague allusions to lounge jazz conjured by electric piano or
vibraphone doodling, that sort of thing. The persistent presence of
a bit of glitch and crackle holds the collection together.
My favorite tracks tend to get away from this genre. Akufen's
sans-radio (phew!) track here "Synthaxis 2" is very good, in a
percussive, Twerk-y kind of way. Brinkmann's "Momoklick" is an
alternate version of a track on his "46 Valentino" ep, but satisfying
on its own. And in the context of the many predictable sounds and
gestures on this comp, his idiosyncratic taste in sound and structure
stands out. I had a similar response to the Monolake track, "White
II", which, I suppose, might have passed unnoticed on a Monolake
album; here it really stands out as a well-honed vision and a
polished track. The closing track, by Studio Pankow is a pretty
deep-glitch lullaby.
I've really liked work by Jelinek and Lippok elsewhere, but their
tracks here don't find them operating at the height of their powers.
The Sutekh is nice enough, a glitch funk thing.
Overall, quite the mixed bag.
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Rhythm Method>PartOne: A Mosaic Records Collection (echomotif)
This one's a couple years old, compiling material from as far back as
1997. But I mention it because I just got it recently and it keeps
returning to my cd player. From what I've heard at the record store,
listening to this and that Mosaic 12" release, a lot of their stuff
is tracky and not quite interesting enough for home listening,
despite an admirable commitment to a deep minimal tech-house sound.
This comp does a great job of picking a bunch of gems that add up to
a great album. Lots of severely skeletal grooves that groove
wonderfully nonetheless, with tasty deep harmonic washes and, well,
that's about it but for a sprig of spoken voice sample here and
there. Tracks by Steve O'Sullivan, Dean Decosta, Mark Broom, John
Tejada and others.
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audio.nl (audio.nl)
with tracks by Motor, Taylow Deupress, Auch, Komet, Slo-Fi, Goem, and others
Hell, yeah. Idiosyncratic minimal techno. There's a note on the cd
that audio.nl was created, initially, to put out the Motor records.
And yeah, I guess I should track down that Motor cd, his tracks are
always great, including the ones on this comp. Indeed, there's a
certain effusive grooveness to his work that distinguishes it from
the more self-conscious restraint of some of the stuff here. Still,
there's a lot of great stuff on this comp, all 4 on the floor with
lots of little scrapes, pings, clanks and almost no reverb. overall,
though, there's certain kind of casual inventiveness that I really
appreciate. digging that Komet track right now...
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mutek 02 (mutek)
I don't know, something missing here. nothing's bad, really, but,
given the astonishing lineups at Mutek I was expecting something
stronger. Mostly lesser-known (by me) artists here. Lot of forays
into familiar territories of glitch and melodic electronica, mostly
kinda low key. All of which would be fine but it doesn't quite reach
critical mass for me. And there's that grim feeling you get when you
hear another dozen people you never heard of jumping on the
bandwagon of some passing style...why not think of something new?
Well, maybe they will, and hopefully Mutek will continue to provide
them a forum.
------------------
super brief: Total 4 (kompakt) - yeah, another good comp, uneven and
unpredictable, not like the others. a stronger, more interesting
statement than a lot of their 12s seem on their own.
Konvex/Koncav: Midas Touch - really good tech house comp. Like it!
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