Review: Thomas Fehlmann's superb score of the TV documentary 24H Berlin was rightly lauded across the board, the latest in a long line of achievements in the field of electronic music that dates back some 25 years. Here we see three of the tracks from the soundtrack remixed, surely a daunting task for even the most seasoned producer. Thankfully, the two men chosen have taken up the challenge with aplomb. First up is Soulphiction, whose reworking of "Wasser Im Fluss" cleverly uses looped chords and shuffling drum patterns to build a deft, understated gem. Meanwhile Move D turns his more than capable remixing hand to both "Softpark" and "Berliner Luftikuss" - the former is a contented jaunt into deep house territory, while the latter is a melodic gem with softly squelching synths taking a journey through hazy atmospherics.
Move D & Benjamin Brunn - "Transit" - (3:06) 122 BPM
REAGENZ meets Thomas Fehlmann - "One Small Step..." - (7:01) 114 BPM
Move D & Fred P - "Building Bridges" - (10:40) 120 BPM
Move D - "Perpetual State" (feat The Poem "Alles Ist Eins" By Thorn Hoedh) - (5:00) 105 BPM
Move D - "Building Bridges" (continuous DJ mix) - (1:05:53) 122 BPM
Review: As his vast discography proves, David "Move D" Moufang is a big fan of musical collaborations. It's perhaps fitting, then, that his latest album is packed to the rafters with co-produced killers. Check, for example, the ultra-deep, woozy and off-kilter "Innit", a superbly dubby and opaque cut made with German rave pioneer D-Man, the intergalactic deep house warmth of Fred P collaboration "Building Bridges" and the semi-orchestrated ambient bliss of Benjamin Brunn hook-up "Transit". His acclaimed collaborative projects also feature: Reagenz (with Jonah Sharp) joins forces with Thomas Fehlmann on the elastic dub techno flex of "One Small Step" and Magic Mountain High (with Juju and Jordash) takes slow-burn, softly spoken deep house/dub techno fusion and runs with it. As you'd expect, the solo tracks are impeccable, too.
Review: Los Lagos is Orb member Thomas Fehlmann's first solo album in eight years. Like his collaborations with Alex Patterson, it is a sprawling affair that sees the veteran producer head "wherever my heart drives me". This approach yields a multiple of different directions; there's the scuffled, offbeat techno of "Lowenzahnzimmer" and "Triggerism"; the jerky, jazzy "Window" and the digital dub on "Morrislouis". The album also sees Fehlmann team up with Max Loderbauer, another long-term collaborator, to create the jarring, stepping "Tempelhof". At the other end of the spectrum, his creativity focuses on sun-kissed abandon articulated on the effervescent, layered groove that is "Freiluft" - the most impressive embodiment of the freewheeling approach that pervades Los Lagos.
Review: One would immediately not pair Thomas Fehlman, the renowned German experimentalist, with techno minimalist Terrence Dixon, but this album still makes perfect artistic sense. Although the pair had never met before they recorded it around the time of last year's Detroit's Movement festival, their sensibilities overlap seamlessly from the outset. Fehlmann's playful abstract nuances and Dixon's pointillist sense of repetition make tracks like "The Corner" and "Patterns & Senses" danceable but also deeply experimental. While Dixon's hypnotic approach takes over on the driving "Strings In Space", in the main, this is an work of creative equals, as the steppy "Experiment 3" and the deep space ambience of "Landline" demonstrate.
Review: As we head into a new decade of sound it's a safe feeling to know that as genres evolve and change we have Kompakt to guide us through such times. The label, a fundamental proponent in giving dance music the accessibility and popularity is has today, has always had its finger on the pulse when it comes to introducing new ideas and genre concepts going forward. Their annual pop ambient series, from the start, has remained a place for recognised label mates and associates to release music that's still appealing to the masses while remaining leftfield, avant garde and easy on the ears. Call it neo-easy listening. Expect swathes of deep piano chords, swells of emotional pads drenched in reverb and splashes of contemporary classicalisms. Your soundtrack and introduction to a new vanguard of future music.
