Marcel Dettmann - Kontra Mokira Mixes

A Factory Report 1
B Factory Report 2

Marcel Dettmann has been moving in directions I don't think many could have predicted, and it's a mixed blessing. While the Berlin producer continues to be associated with a particularly forceful, industrial style (the epitome of the Berghain sound, almost cliched at this point), his 2010 output wasn't really faithful to that stereotype. His album saw him craft an hour of painstaking home-listening techno, there was a near-ambient track on the Funf compilation and you had a slew of unpredictable and inconsistent remixes (good: his remix of Traversable Wormhole's "Closed Timelike Curve"; Commix's "Satellite Type 2," not so much).

Kontra-Mokira-Mixes marks Dettmann's first original release on the always-intriguing Kontra-Musik label, and it comes armed with faux-conceptual gravitas. Dettmann constructed both of these "Factory Reports" out of elements of Swedish producer Mokira. Wait, isn't that just an unnecessarily elaborate way of saying "remix?" Regardless, Part 1 is a slippery dub techno track, and while the sub frequencies that toss and turn underneath are a nice enough foundation, the bored progression and floaty chords are impersonal and detachedly dull. Part 2 redeems its lackluster flipside, as suppressed kicks stumble in a skewed 1-2 step, attempting to break through the curtain of artificial fog. The clouds part a few centimetres enough to let some hi-hats hiss their way in, and the track simmers with the impeccable sound design expected, but it still pales in comparison to something like "Viscous" or any other number closer to Dettmann's most accomplished work...www.residentadvisor.net

Marcel Dettmann - Clime

A1 Clime
A2 Lattice
B1 Shatter Proof
B2 Corebox

Marcel Dettmann is now more than ever one of the most interesting producers in Techno, and this latest twelve for his own MDR imprint is his most advanced and demented transmission yet. It's impossible to overstate just how brilliant the production here is - dark and padded, hollowed out Techno that squeezes in deviant frequencies into f*cked up templates, creating a towering alignment of bass drops and spherical atmospheres that need to be heard to be believed. Opening cut 'Clime' deploys a beatless soundscape, merging a pristine aesthetic with a pulsating, clipped white noise loop that sets the scene perfectly for the kickdrum radiance of the majestic "Lattice", a track that employs all the fuzz and glow of classic Chain Reaction in a completely modern setting that's offset by an innate Warehouse mentality, no doubt honed at Berghain on a Saturday night. It's just mighty mighty stuff. "Shatter Proof" is even more demonic, making use of a reverberating woodblock snap and stunted hats, there's something primal and completely uncompromising about the sound palette and the way its employed, just shocking stuff. "Corebox" ends the twelve with a klangy reduction accompanied by shaker-style percussion, stretched and squashed for maximum ruffage and narcotic impact. One of the finest Techno twelves of the year - don't sleep on this one, it's already sold out at source, KILLER!...www.boomkat.com