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