Suriusmo / ‘Mosaik’
Vinyl / CD / Digital
Monkeytown Records / Released 25th February 2011
Modeselektor’s label isn’t known for the expected, and the guy behind remixes for names ranging from Scissor Sisters to A-Trak and Munk was never going to bring out a normal album after spending so long creating chaotic sounds in short form. Thankfully though, he has put together a coherent full length package, sort of.
High Together opens things from a tongue in cheek stance. Keyboards are played, then stopped. A crowd cheers. This send and return talentless showmanship continues, until eventually the audience turns on the artist, and begins booing. Cue drop into warm, bar-room four four electro-house. It’s possibly not as clever as that might sound, but it is big, and quite likeable.
There’s an interlude three tracks in called Call Me that, unusually, pretty much sums up the ethos here. Make a lot happen, and throw as many curve balls as possible. The result is something that flits between the title track- a glitchy, analogue summertime number of keys and bounce that sounds like a Bibio track or two before its garagey kick steps in- and deranged, fast, bass driven electro. Perhaps think early Daft Punk, but with far less US, and a lot more Europe involved.
For some it could get too much at times, there’s certainly no denying that. But then not everyone wants drilling techno either. And, as outings like Lass Den Vogel Frei! prove, there’s plenty of filtered, stabbed and slightly schizophrenic funk to conteract the banging, providing a refreshing amount of contrast which, in this day and age, is something to be said in itself.
Fresh as it may be, old schoolers might not find themselves out in the cold either though. 123, it’s hoover-step and strings, and Nights Off‘s classic piano riff are enough to keep anyone entertained, without ever mentioning the finest production on here. On a slight progressive tip, Goldene Kugel bursts from pretty much nowhere to become something that wouldn’t sound out of place in Agoria’s box, or indeed flying the warmer end of the Kompakt tech flag. Like everything else on the disc, it’s quite unlike almost anything else off it.
