home > browse > cd-feature > view article

Net Decks 7

  Tobias

The cliche of techno and electronica producers being knobfiddlers with scant theoretical knowledge, unaware of the term “score” outside of baseball and mistaking a “minor key” for something small to open your door, has long been dispelled by a large league of classicaly trained instrumentalists, who have set foot in the genre. Benfay is one of them: Free Jazz was his first obsession, learning the semantics of seven (!) instruments his second. It was only during his college years that the interest for DJing and the associated musical styles was developed, but the passion has proved to be a lasting one. “Born on a Houseboat” picks up his mutual loveaffair with the thinner netlabel and allows spectators a look at the man’s philosophy: The dry house beats develop a pure and mellow groove, quirky delayed sequences hover in the air like melodies whistled by friendly fireflies on jupiter and chords are filtered organically to create spaceous, warm harmonies. It is an extremely positve and optimistic music, true to the roots and with an open ear for innovation, both futuristic and intimate. If you listen carefully, you will find the bass to be the guiding light – its warm resonances providing a deep, maternal sensation. Benfay is correct in claiming that it is not instrumental expertise which matters, but a creative mind to connect the pieces of the puzzle into works, which remain recognisable, yet are able to do without endless and tiresome references.

Also out on thinner is Herwig Holzmann’s “How to stop”. We know Holzmann from his Ambient and IDM-oeuvre under the banner of photophob, but this time he has decided to operate under his civil name. Maybe that is a further sign, that one of the chiefs of Austrian moniker Laridae is less and less interested in publishing his oeuvre in a secluded and narrow scene, but aims for something more complex and imagistic. “How to stop” is a break in his repertoire, nothing less and even though both sides of his personality are still present, the dark and the beautiful, they are now amalgamated into a new and unique crossbreed. The electronic music of the 70s is never far away on this album, which sounds like a single big declaration of love. Possibly even more touching than his already powerful statement of intent “Circadian Rhythms”.
www.thinner.cc


Modul, too, do not fit the typical roster of electronic artists. First off, they’re a trio, defying the notion of the solitary nerd piling up pizza packs in his messy appartment and living off coffee and too little sleep. Furthermore, they started off with releases on netlabels which are closer to the experimental scene than to clubbing and shaking your booty. Finally, their stylistic eclecticism seems positively displaced between hordes of projects merely aiming at cheap recognisability through rigid repetition of the same formula. “Directions”, published by their compatriots of the Fragment label, is yet another skilfull display of their ability to take stark contrasts and weld them togther into a mesmerising and insistent aural movie. Bell sounds and chains of chimes are the timbral basis for the new pieces, linear percussion patterns under cyclically evolving soundscapes constitute hypnotic arrangements with a twist. Mood, rather than complicated thematic transformation is the key element, but nonewithstanding, the ease with which Modul manage to switch from feathery lightness to dark and haunting story-telling is still impressive. Fragment announce this as a “very warm and deep, midsummer release”, we’d say: Cinematic broadbandmusic for all seasons.
www.fragmentmusic.net


The music to Idealtechno’s “Minimale Momente: Schwarz” should have been a reason to celebrate: For a total of four EPs, this color-based sampler series has ammassed exclusive tracks from the Idealtechno artist lineup and served as a refreshing compendium of the current state of minimal techno. The final edition comes as a supersized volume, with eight tracks in total, turning this into a fully fledged album and allowing both a look back at the early beginnings and a perspective for the future. Again, the pieces take their energy from reducing the material to the basic ingredients and concentrating on the close interlocking of rhythmic and melodic material. A couple of minutes in to Salvatore de Rosa’s “3voluti0n” or Johnny Peinlich’s “meinsdeinsihrs”, you can’t be sure whether you’re humming along to the relentless (and, on an upfront inspection, more detailed than you’d think) bass drum and hihats, or whether your body is captivated by the looped melody on top. Such moments are everyday business here, the music revealing a lot of detail under a seemingly simple surface and an alluring pull with spartan means. Docma’s “Vollmond”, essentially, is a one-track summary of the release, nothing but densely layered polyrhythmic cycles, defragmentised vocal samples and a razorsharp tractorbeam. So why the sadness? Because Idealtechno team member and Ambitronic mastermind Marc-Christian Witt did not live to see the conclusion of “Minimale Momente”. A talented and flexible musician, whose stylistic influences went far beyond techno and included collaborations with former Popul Voh member Frank Fiedler, he died of a severe illness early this year. His contribution “Blaues Dreieck” (“Blue Triangle”) is the legacy of a man who will be missed by more than just his friends at Idealtechno.
www.idealtechno.de

By Tobias Fischer