Kompakt: Search und Destroy - Teil Drei

'We Love' is completely owning my headphones today. So fantastic.

i guys, i know this is a lame move and should read through all drei teils, but i was at work for 12 hours today and i'm really tired. if i only own IMMER and TODAY and FROM HERE WE GO TO SUBLIME, the other most pressing releases for me to check out are: total III, total VI, and Chromophobia, yes?

Those three are excellent, yes, but also: Immer 2! The DJ Koze and Matias Aguayo albums! Justus Kohncke's Doppelleben! Closer Musik! So much good stuff. Also the Dorau/Kohncke Kompakt Pop 12", which is still the best thing in the history of ever.

Can we talk about how amazing "Uberweisen" is?

Yes, it reminds me a bit of Orbital's "Style", only less, um, cheesy (though i do like the cheese of "Style). Its big happy melody vibe is also a bit Ada-esque. The drum programming is surprisingly frisky! Both for the kind of track it is and for Thomas/Mayer generally.

I have a feeling a lot of stuff on Total 8 might end up being underrated owing to the comp as a whole being a bit samey.

BTW, for Poortheatre, the best of the rest:

1) Friends
2) Total 4
3) Total 2
4) Are You Really Lost?
5) Total 7
6) Smallville

Re Total 8, at the moment i'm totally obsessed with Steadycam's "In The Moog For Love" - that synth arpeggio that comes in at the four minute mark is insane.

Can we talk about how amazing "Uberweisen" is?
point, although it is" über wiesen" (wiesen are meadows).

I simply love the new experiment by Justus Köhncke - Pickpockets - that starts with a link to his masterpiece Elan.

woah! coincidence alert. was just browsing around the mp3s at the wfmu site and came across a tune, "supermayor is watching over you" by andy roberts and the gallivanters. not only did the name give me pause, according to the description (below), there was a comic! weird.

"From 1970 to 1972, the city of Saint Paul, MN was led by colorful Mayor Charlie McCarty who won the election as an independent candidate. He was both loved and hated by many for his unpredictable words and deeds, but never failed to entertain. He earned the nickname "Supermayor" due to his penchant for patrolling the streets of the city at all hours of the night in his hand-picked Lincoln Continental (dubbed the "Supercar") which was decked out all manner of police and fire radios, and the newly modern technology in the song's lyrics that allowed him to switch red lights to green while he tooled around town with his driver. An incident where Mayor McCarty helped apprehend a disorderly patron at a White Castle restaurant was the genesis of an weekly "Supermayor" comic strip by Jerry Fearing in the local paper. Enter Andy Roberts, and friends The Gallivanters. Both were regular performers at Gallivan's restaurant and bar in downtown Saint Paul. Roberts wrote the song about McCarty, and recorded it with The Gallivanters as his backing band." -http://wfmu.org/onthedownload.php/byartist/3

That Partial Arts track is so good, it'd be an amazing mix-opener.

Anyone seen/heard this Japan only Kaito mix-cd?

Kaito - Contact to the Spirits

1 Jonas Bering Before Sunset (4:25)
2 Gui Boratto Hera (3:54)
3 Dettinger Puma 2 (3:20)
4 Dirk Leyers Wellen (3:55)
5 Reinhard Voigt Supertiel (4:50)
6 Mint All (Remix) (4:09)
7 Michael Mayer X (3:30)
8 Sascha Funke Drei Auf Drei (2:29)
9 DJ Koze My Grandmotha (3:31)
10 Markus Guentner Wenn Musik Der Liebe Nahrung Ist (2:18)
11 Superpitcher Even Angels (4:26)
12 Kaito Everlasting (Dub Mix) (5:03)
13 Field, The Good Things End (3:42)
14 Justus Köhncke Advance (Prins Thomas Diskotek Miks) (3:48)
Remix - Prins Thomas
15 Jürgen Paape Nord (2:40)
16 Closer Musik One, Two, Three (No Gravity) (3:03)
17 Ferenc Nitsa Is 11 (5:13)
18 Rice Twins, The For Penny And Alexis (2:45)
19 Aril Brikha Winter (3:44)

In other news, Steadycam's "In The Moog For Love" is edging closer to being my favourite track ever.

Did anyone else go to the Gui Boratto/Matias Agayo thing at Plastic People last Wednesday?
It was a really great night, I thought, especially Agayo, with his singing (in this quite effeminate voice) while DJing (which in my ignorance I didn't know he did).
Anyway, apparently it's now a regular Kompakt night, and Supermayer are on in September.
If you haven't been, it's a lovely venue - the dancefloor is quite small and totally unlit, with a great soundsystem, so it's all about the music.

That Kaito mix does look very nice (though it doesn't seem to have much surprises, judging by the tracklist).

On the 'studio'-thread someone mentioned a short mix by Matias Aguayo being available at allez-allez. It starts off with two new Aguayo tracks, at least that's what I think (don't know the titles). Not that different sounding from the songs on Are you really lost?, but since that's one of my favorite records I'm not complaining.

The Aguayo mix on allez-allez is great! I was completely bowled over by his set at plastic people: I hadn't known, either, that he was going to sing over the tops of records, and so for a while I though he was just sampling stuff? but no, there he was, with his swannee whistle (swannee whistle!*) and his cowbell, burbling away. There was one track, really dubby and dark, so good I was shivering to hear it. Whatever records it was he played right at the very end, too, were so so great to dance to.

plastic people would be a lovely venue were it ever possible to get a drink at the ridiculously understaffed and knee-deep-in-elbowing-posers bar!

I'm wild about the synth line on 'in the moog for love' but I'm not much of a fan of how it starts.

* i feel oddly vindicated about this because once someone tried to tell me the sample in 'lick the pipe' was pan pipes? but no, it is a motherfucking swannee whistle.

i love his allez allez mix. heard it for the first, and second, time last night.

many laughs when he starts purring on the Allez-Allez mix, 'let me hear you say RRRRRRRRR'. It's brilliant, more sexy even than 'are you really lost. The new tracks at beggining have a bit of Neue Deutsche Welle feeling maybe?

oh my tim. where did you find that kaito mix for sale? it's like all of kompakt's soppiest moments strung together

I haven't found it strongo, sadly - it's just listed on discogs.com is all. It looks like a legit release though, the front cover is totally consistent with all the other Kompakt mix-cds.

Not even sure why I love "In The Moog for Love" so much, it just feels like some absolute pinnacle of Kompakt-style emo-functionalism - the surround-sound production, the burbling bassline, the staggered single note hook, and that synth line phasing in and out like a French House take on early Genesis - melancholy and bumping! I would kill to see its impact on a dancefloor.

It's kind of what the Supermayer album might have been had it been more of a dancefloor destruction affair. Actually the Mayer remix of "Happiness" might be the closest reference, except I like "In The Moog For Love" a lot more.

Supermayer Save the World = Sebadoh Kompakt-style

(Which probably means Firm = Shrimper)

Tim, they're selling it at Cisco, seems def legit. http://www.cisco-records.co.jp/html/item/003/040/item295403.html

clumsy approximation at the blurb (daerest japan, why are your sentences so long? yrs sadfacedly, c):

a mix cd by Kaito using records from Kompakt! With a previously unreleased dub it "Everlasting" too!

You could call it a CD for the ages - chosen and mixed by Kaito himself, using only records from label Kompakt, it's finally released! A mix of gorgeous synthesised works whose images expand with thick beats and delicate propulsion, with a feel of conceptual unity running through the whole thing, surely the only word for it is "wonderful"! Kaito builds a world in this superlative mix which feels clear and warm throughout; mixing old and new records whose sound of themselves have a trance-ambient feeling in line with Kaito's own spirit, a clear feeling that just overflows from them, chosen with his characteristic sense from the famous tunes of Kompakt - from recent releases by The Field, Aril Brikha and Gui Boratto to classics by Ferenc, Sascha Funke, Mint and so on. Of particular note, in a beautiful sequence which brings to mind Manuel Göttsching's "E2-E4", is the new unreleased dub mix of the much-talked-about monster-class longseller-item "Everlasting", a deep instant in spacy style where a magnificent and comfortable feeling of immersion stretches out gently.

ie 'all of kompakts soppiest moments strung together'

"(Which probably means Firm = Shrimper)"

Ha ha - who is Schad Privat then?

Firm have been influential in quite a few ways I think. I was thinking the other day that all their housier moments would sound very modish if released today.

I note that in Strongo's review of Total 8 he describes "In The Moog For Love" as so indistinct that he doubts Steadycam himself would recognise it in a set!

Which kinda makes sense to me - the distance from definitive to generic is so small with this stuff.

The distance has been decreasing since Total 5, hasn't it? (At least if we're using the Totals as signposts.) The perception has only intensified since the Totals expanded to two discs and as the release schedule has loaded up. (Speichers 1-25 released within a span of nearly four years; Speichers 26-50 released within a span of just over two years. And then all the K2 stuff.)

I think it's as much to do with style as volume: something like "In The Moog For Love" works brilliantly for me because it's all about honing in on the core principles of the Kompakt sound (atmospheric, swirly surround sound production; moody but still funky bassline; kind of unsettling but oddly pretty and totally compulsive hook) and intensifying them to the nth degree - but if you don't hear the intensity then it just becomes "standard Kompakt fare".

Total 6 was pretty diverse I thought -really ran the gamut from lush disco to hard techno abstraction, with a healthy number of vocal tracks. Total 7 less so, but it was probably the most unabashedly melodic comp they'd put out. Total 8 is similar to Total 5 in that it feels more focused, this time on melodic but streamlined tech-house.

In one sense what has dropped away is not only the strong pop/vocal emphasis but also the residual (gasp) "IDM" feel that allowed 2 - 4 to be grouped in with the microhouse of the day - there's a lot of stuff on Total 2, say, that probably isn't meant to be danced to (like my secret favourite, the Gebr. Teichmann track). Perhaps one of the consequences of dance music generally moving closer to German techno (particularly of the Kompakt stripe) is that a label like Kompakt suddenly finds itself in the centre of the action, and no longer feels like it needs to define itself "against" current dancefloor trends. In a funny way Total 8 sounds as fashionable as the label ever has, squarely parked between Sebo K-style deepness and Redshape-style Detroit revivalism.

I'm surprised jess doesn't like "We Love" though. Such tasty cheese.

anyone know anything about an upcoming justus or superpitcher album?

I haven't heard it, but Köhncke has a 12" out on Eskimo(http://www.discogs.com/release/1010253) as Division by Zero.
His myspacepage mentions a new album on Kompakt in the autumn.

re: Total 8- I agree with the part of Jess' review where he points out that there are no big surprises here. With the exception of "We Love", they seem to have ditched the spirited attempts to incorporate pop music. I keep hoping for something like the Mayer/Aguayo "cover" of Kylie. I feel like the previously released stuff on Total 8 is invariably strong--"Trauermusik", "Can I Say", "Berghain", "Polyform 1", Babicz's Boratto remix, the Nightcats and Steadycam tracks. If anything, it's a handful of the new exclusives that disappoint. "Cold Wind" sounds like a much weaker stab at "Really Real" and "Rainy Nights in Georgia", "Coladancer" and the Geiger remix of SuperMayer strike me as uncharacteristically dry and uninviting. Overall I'd say it's an improvement over Total 7 though.

Anyway, the DEMF website is streaming Michael Mayer's set from this year's festival. If someone can ID the track that comes in at around 80:00, I'd be much obliged!

I haven't been keeping up at all with Kompakt for the last year or two, or indeed listening to much, which probably means I shouldn't be trusted, but I have to say that listening to the Kaito mix this afternoon made me fall back in love with this stuff again. It's probably at least half nostalgia, though, anyway.

my first impressions of Total 8 were surprisingly good, need to give it another listen I think. I really had practically given up hope of liking Kompakt again...

The new one forthcoming on Kompakt - Honingpumpe

-- Tim F, Saturday, April 7, 2007 10:34 AM (4 months ago)

"Honey Pump"

-- Andy K, Saturday, April 7, 2007 10:53 AM (4 months ago)

^is really good btw

the fehlmann didn't really grab me unlike the Mayer's DEMF mix. Wow!! is the ada remix with the "word up" samples a supermayer remix?

tricky- That's the Thomas/Mayer remix of "Maps".

Anyone else been to the Total 8 party? The Burger/Voigt set was great. Wolfgang and Jörg were clearly having a great time behind their laptops. They played all new material i believe and finished off with a surprising cover of Kraftwerk's "The Model" (Or "Das Modell" actually) after some good old fashioned acid.

The Return of Burger/Voigt -> http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature-read.aspx?id=839

The two first tracks on Matias Aguayo's allez-allez mix that was talked about upthread are from his upcoming 12" on Soul Jazz.

nice. will buy.

supermayer save the world is around now. home-style listening party tonight.

the boratto/scsi-9 speicher 55 is epic!

that Burger/Voigt track on Total 8 is fantastic; and so is their Gudrun Gut remix on Monika--they're on fire!

i also love that new Voigt & Voigt Speicher Gong Audio; it's hilarious!

i think ppl are excited about this maxime dangles track - agujas - but i'm just not into noisy bangers at the moment

is the supermayer remix of rufus wainwright's tiergarten worth picking up?

pop ambient 2008 is lovely. sometimes i like these more than the total comps.

the all track is very nice, but i wish voigt did another gas track.

the field even did a "kappsta 2", which is a pretty interesting track. i wish stuff on "sublime" was as murky as his pop ambient tracks.

justus k at the end of january. anticipation! ra says less vocals :(

Suppermayer's version of Rufus Wainwright's Tiergarten is by far THE MOST CAMP thing I've heard all year. Somehow it manages to make Rufus sound even camper! It is cool though, I iTunes'd it and have only played a few times. I had hoped I would hear the whole thing on a dancefloor at some point.. that would have been crazy.

that burger/voigt 'bring trance back' 12" is quite good, i think.

into 08, here's the juno clip of partial arts' long-awaited (by me anyway) "telescope" (with radioslave remix)

http://www.juno.co.uk/artists/Partial+Arts/

oh hell yeah. when's the release date? january sometime?

yeah, first beginning of jan. the 9th maybe.