Pierre Deutschmann / Betroit
CD / Digital
BluFin / Released September 2013
A producer with one hell of a fitting name, Mr. Deutschmann is a proper stalwart of the German scene who has been around for some 20 years as producer, DJ, and general party-maker. As such there were few doubts in our mind that the contents would be excellent.
According to the release blurb Betroit celebrates the ‘primitive rock of techno’, and we’d struggle to disagree. First track on the album proper, Cruf, sounds like something is about to explode, growing from stumbling broken beats into a track defined by hefty four four kicks (think hydraulics) and ravey undertones. A short-ish, sharp and inescapable wake up from whatever it is you were last listening to.
It’s not all so juggernaut in ethic, mind. Following number PrameterLock drops things down to a housier tempo but still nodding to a kind of Earthy techno- clean basslines, stripped drums and melodic string stab, by now it should be clear exactly what led to the choice of album title. Whilst none of the tracks are clearly siding with either the U.S. or European take on this genre, clearly there are strong elements of both audible.
So a more soulful American energy meeting the kind of abandoned power station vibe people automatically associate with Berlin etcetera (although it should be noted BluFin is a Cologne thing). Predominantly hard and rolling, at times seemingly obsessed with hypnosis (Looking Backwards, for example) and even occasionally edging towards trancier elements (the excellent Emphasis), let’s skip the track by track run down and leave it on this note- vinyl customers will be gutted, as pretty much everything on here is worth owning, playing, and falling in some sort of sweaty club love with.