"To our mind Boxcutter has always worked at the more interesting end of dubstep, on the one hand we have the nu-rave jump up rubbish that seems be delivered each week in inexhaustible amounts, while on the other hand we have a handful of acts that seem to thrive on confounding expectations rather than fitting into a mould. Boxcutter is one such artist and his second album 'Glyphic' is a testament to this, containing a cross-generic spread of tracks you'd never expect to hear from most producers on the scene. Of course there are likely to be those who moan at Boxcutter's lack of purist ideals, but what do they know? Here we've got rumbling bass one minute and an analogue synth freak-out the next, with a bit of two step and jungle thrown in there for good measure. Boxcutter (Barry to his mates) is someone who isn't afraid to think outside the box when it comes to lapping up his listening material, and with a genuine passion for electronica, dub, jazz and, well, pretty much everything in-between I suppose we were always going to end up with quite an odd album. The fact that we kick off with something quite so unusual as the title track 'Glyphic' - an eight minute exploration into free jazz sax and deep, deep bass - only puts paid to these suggestions. Elsewhere we get the purist dubstep of 'Bug Octet', the breaks-heavy 'Rusty Break' and the crackling roots of 'J Dub', but for me the surprise highlight comes on the second half of the album which sees Boxcutter tackling squelchy analogue electronica. On 'Bloscid' we see the producer taking influence from Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert as he lets the drum machine cycle and the synthesizers blurt out hooky basslines and detuned lead, a style that pops back on 'Lunal' and for my money he's taking on the big producers and coming out on top. 'Glyphic' is a great dubstep album that manages to kick the spotty arse off a genre and shows the world that there's more to life than a rave sample and a comedy bass line. Let's hope he gets the credit he deserves." [source]
"Beginning its activities in the early ‘nineties, the shadowy Gescom collective has released material on Clear, Leaf, Chocolate Industries, SKAM, Warp, Worm Interface, and Source labels.
Incorrectly perceived as simply an Autechre side-project, Gescom in fact exists as a platform for a number of aligned artists to work in various different combinations, whilst remaining-otherwise-anonymous. Personnel in Gescom has varied from release to release and even track track. Releases have included 'Minidisc' in 1998 on the Or label, which was reportedly the first ever Minidisc-only release. This comprised of 45 tracks sliced into 88 portions, and encouraging the listener to loop and shuffle at will.
Working members for the minidisc project were Russell Haswell, Sean Booth and Rob Brown. For its split series incarnation, Rob Brown was joined by SKAM DJ Rob Hall (aka Ad Vanz). Gescom continues to operate and shift its identities.
Early Gescom is probably best described as friends of Booth/Brown with production help by Booth/Brown, aka Autechre. Apart from that, the actual personnel seems to vary from release to release or even from track to track. Quote from the Autechre FAQ: "Actually the whole Gescom crew consists of almost 20 people. Sean Booth calls it an 'umbrella-project'."
But there are also a number of releases by a Gescom which is purely Booth/Brown. If it's on Skam they call themselves Gescom regardless of cooperation, it seems.
Gescom is an abbreviation of "Gestalt Communications"." [source]
"A1-D1" is a much more old school affair than anything Gescom have released before, with the opening "A1" employing the kind of fast-edit arrangements favoured by the likes of Secondo, particularly their earlier b-boy aping releases. There's a sample-heaviness here that will come as quite a surprise to ardent Gescom/Autechre followers among you, but play this track once or twice and it'll stay ingrained in your mind for weeks to come. A2 is a more analogue affair with a stripped acid template while B1 returns to sampled matter with a P-funk reduction that sounds like Autechre playing with their samplers - which is probably exactly what it is. C1 is another reduced funk edit with some smart tempo shifts while C2 is an abstract radio mashup in a concrete style while the massive D1 ends the set with an immense mashup of what sounds like Adonis' classic "No Way Back" fucked with good and proper. Sick business - lets hope we don't have to wait another four years eh?" [source]
Artist: The Ace Of Clubs Album: Benefist Label: Firstcask Release date: 11 June 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Acid/ElectroTracklisting: 01. Cordial 02. Electrip 03. Heathrow Hardcore Terminal 04. Classid 05. Whorgan 06. Whirr Jill 07. Benefist 08. Assid 09. Ecid 10. Analoaf 11. Patriotic Acid 12. Rubber Chunks 13. pHeel The pHorce 14. Fruitacid 15. Acidream Total running time: 74' 44""Luke Vibert's on a mission - and thankfully his latest incarnation as the Ace of Clubs has provided him a platform for his best material in quite some years. Party acid is the order of the day - and across the 15 tracks on offer here Vibert ups the ante with a return to the deliciously analogue productions that made his early work so peerless. "Cordial" opens the album with a bouncy shuffle that's not too dissimilar to the legendary Analord series, except with an added airiness to production that works a treat now the sun's decided to come out. By the time we reach "Heathrow Hardcore Terminal" the Ceephax templates are in full effect and your yanked head-first into a strobe-lit warehouse in some dodgy part of Essex for a flailing JACK session - top top stuff. "Benefist" is another highlight - tight drums and twilight arpegios are the order of the day - sort of like Kraftwerk mashed up by Aphex Twin, larging it up in some abandoned Cornwall field. Its nigh on impossible to find a duff track here - either Vibert has found his true form again or props should go out to the Firstcask imprint for their selection skills - either way this is a hugely enjoyable album, designed for peak-time party deployment or just for soundtracking any old Sunday killing time down the park - and its this kind of effortlessly enjoyable electronic music that seems to be so sorely missing these days. If you're after pure acid abandonment from a master producer - look no further." [source]
Artist: Luke Vibert Album: Chicago, Detroit, Redruth Label: Planet Mu Release date: 16 July 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Acid/Techno/Drum 'n' Bass/Hip HopTracklisting: 01. Comfycozy 02. Brain Rave 03. Radio Savalas 04. Breakbeat Metal Music 05. God 06. Clikilik 07. Argument Fly 08. Rotting Flesh Bags 09. Comphex 10. Rapperdacid 11. Chicago, Detroit, Redruth 12. Swet Total running time: 63' 00""A true veteran of the UK electronic scene, Luke Vibert has, in the last few years, finally gained the recognition he deserves. His first dispatches saw him go from the ambient textures of his debut album as Wagon Christ to a much more acute and varied sound, infused with hip hop, soul, electro, techno, acid house and drum’n'bass. Distilled under a variety of pseudonyms (Wagon Christ, Plug, Kerrier District, Amen Andrews, Spac Hand Luke to name but a few) these have progressively become the staple diet for his fans. Yet, it took for the man to focus on one of his until-then somewhat overlooked strengths, acid, with his monumental YosepH (Warp, 2003) for the world, or at least electronic followers, to finally take stock and listen.
This second album for long term friend Mike Paradinas’s Planet Mu imprint branches out more than its predecessor, Lover’s Acid (2005) by incorporating, beside healthy servings of acid house and classic techno, decent helpings of drum’n'bass (Comfycozy), groovy hip-hop and trip-hop (Rotting Flesh Bags, Swet) and classic electronica. And as if to get his point across right from the start, it is with the bip-bop-infused drum’n'bass groove of Comfycozy that Vibert chooses to open the hostilities. All the way through, Vibert jumps from one genre to the next with disarming dexterity, effortlessly clocking mile after mile of dance floor mayhem without ever breaking into a sweat.
From the playful Speak’n'Spell assault of Breakbeat Metal Music and the heavy groove of Clikilik to the hypnotic Argument Fly, the slightly sombre Rotting Flesh Bags or the closing Swet, on which he spills library music all over an incendiary funky rhythm, Vibert gathers beats and grooves, stuff them with acid squelches and warm bass lines and delivers an extremely convincing collection of fresh and imaginative electronic pieces.
The standards rarely drop at all here, and despite the wide range of genres forming the core of this record, Chicago, Detroit, Redruth is surprisingly consistent. Fans of Wagon Christ will be as much as ease as those who prefer Vibert’s more purely dance floor orientated incarnations. It may take a few listens to truly appreciate the breadth and reach of this album, but the reward is well worth the effort.
Vibert was never a front-of-house master, at least in the early years. Often found circling in the background of more flamboyant friends, Paradinas included, his versatility was sometimes mistaken for a lack of particular focus, but he has proved the most reliable of long distance achievers as he continues to deliver slices of beats and grooves with insistent regularity. A truly hedonistic collection, Chicago, Detroit, Redruth is undoubtedly one of his strongest releases to dates, and it is incidentally also one of the most entertaining records released this year." [source]
Artist: Modeselektor Album: Happy Birthday! Label: BPitch Control Release date: 10 September 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Techno/Electro/Hip Hop/Acid/GlitchTracklisting: 01. Godspeed 02. 2000007 [Feat. TTC] 03. Happy Birthday! 04. Let Your Love Grow [Feat. Paul St. Hilaire] 05. B.M.I. 06. EM Ocean 07. Sucker Pin 08. The First Rebirth 09. The Dark Side Of the Frog [Feat. Puppetmastaz] 10. The Dark Side Of the Sun [Feat. Puppetmastaz] 11. Black Block 12. Edgar 13. Hyper Hyper [Feat. Otto Von Schirach] 14. Late Check-Out 15. The Wedding Toccata Theme 16. The White Flash [Feat. Thom Yorke] 17. Déboutonner [Feat. Siriusmo] Total running time: 69' 40" [Modeselektor - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player]
"Ellen Allien's BPitch Control is one of Germany's more eclectic dance-music labels, firmly rooted in the dark Deutsche techno sound but constantly stretching beyond. Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary of Modeselektor, arguably the label's most celebrated artists aside from Queen Ellen, mark the arrival of their second album with an even broader range of beats than what was displayed on Hello Mom!, their 2005 debut.
Techno-influenced dubstep, grime, and breaks abound on Happy Birthday! alongside some interesting guest vocalists. Opener "Godspeed" takes a dancehall riddim and adds grimey bass and techie synths, setting the tone for an album's worth of cross-genre juxtapositions. Not too far removed from U.K. grime, entries like "2000007," featuring French hip-hoppers TTC, and "The Dark Side of the Sun," featuring the Puppetmastaz, border on cheese only because of their proximity to hip-hop's often silly British sibling. Still, the Selektors' rhythms keep things interesting, and the slower tempo ends up putting the tunes somewhere between the hyperspeed of the English sound and the jiggy grooves of current U.S. hip-hop.
The album's title track actually sounds like some Balkan gypsy jam from the twenty-fourth century, and a pair of dance-floor destroyers that could sound at home on Ed Banger Records makes sure that all bases are covered. Even the few deeper cuts, including a collaboration with Thom Yorke that sounds like an outtake from Eraser, can't help but break up the beats and keep the album from dipping into straight techno. There's a ton going on in every tune, so you can listen intently for the multitude of hidden bits and bobs or simply rock out to the crunchy breaks. The duo has managed to make an album to please both the blogging music nerds and the hipper club-hopping set.
Their influences are obvious, but Bronsert and Szary never rest in any one style. Although many deejays bring a variety of sounds into a single set, these guys have taken things a big step further and crammed multiple genres into each song. They even make dubstep danceable, and deserve quite a bit of credit for that." [source]
Artist: Kim Hiorthøy Album: My Last Day Label: Smalltown Supersound Release date: 5 November 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Nu Jazz/Hip Hop/Breakbeat/Techno/AcidTracklisting: 01. I Thought We Could Eat Friends 02. Beats Mistake 03. Skuggan 04. Album 05. Same Old Shit 06. Den Långa Berättelsen Om Stöv Och Vatten 07. Alt Går Så Langsomt 08. Goodbye To Song 09. Wind Of Failure 10. Hon Var Så Otydlig, Som En Gas 11. I'm This I'm That Total running time: 44' 56" [Smalltown Supersound - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player] [Kim Hiorthøy - Alt Måste Bli Anorlunda - Video Clip]
"Norway's Kim Hiorthøy is not only regarded as one of the most exciting graphic designers in the world today (he has been on the cover of Creative Review, Grafik and Eye, and many more) - he is also an acclaimed musician and producer. "My Last Day" is his long-awaited follow up to his seminal and critically hugely acclaimed "Hei" album from 2000.
Since then he has also released the 2002 album "Melke" (a collection of remixes, 7 inches, rejected tracks and tracks for compilations), several 7 inches and 12 inches as well as his three EPs in 2004: "Hopeness", "Live Shet" (a live recording) and "For The Ladies" (a limited edition collection of field recordings). Since his debut album he has also toured the USA, Europe and Japan several times, as well as a tour in China.
Extraordinarily talented and expressive, Kim Hiorthøy operates in many different fields in addition to music. As a graphic designer he is responsible for the Rune Grammofon artwork, as well as most of Smalltown Supersound’s artwork. He is also an artist (check out www.standardoslo.no for more information about his art) and a writer. Kim wrote the book "Du kan ikke svikte din beste venn og bli god til å synge samtidig" on Norwegian literary publisher Oktober Forlag. He has released a book of photography in Japan, a book of drawings, Alt Fins, and a design book, "Tree Weekend" on Die Gestalten Verlag in Germany. Additionally, Kim has illustrated several children’s books, and has worked in film as a photographer, having shot the acclaimed Norwegian movies “Kroppen Min” and “Ungdommens Raskap”, as a video director for the concert film “Supersilent7”, and as a filmmaker, having just debuted as a director/screenwriter with the Swedish/Norwegian co-production, ”Hur Man Gör”.
Kim Hiorthøy is based in both Berlin and Oslo, but has mostly lived in Berlin over the last couple of years. He has worked on "My Last Day" on and off throughout the last two years; most of it was recorded at his Berlin studio. Compared to "Hei", the new album is less fragmented and more song based. It is also more melodic and complete, all with Kim’s characteristic sound. He often has an organic and folk-like tone to his music which XLR8R magazine recognized when they placed him in the forefront of the new electronic folk music movement with artists such as Herbert, Matmos and Four Tet. Kim Hiorthøy’s music draws influences from folk, jazz (his live sets these days are with free-jazz drum virtuoso Paal Nilssen-Love), lo-fi/leftfield electronics, acid, hip-hop, field recordings and samples. All his music is created on an MPC sampler, the original hip-hop instrument. The use of the MPC also makes Kim’s live performances much more physical than the often mundane laptop live sets in electronic music.
The music and everything else Kim Hiorthøy creates has his own unique and strong signature - that Kim Hiorthøy feeling, you might call it. On “My Last Day” Kim Hiorthøy continues to create great electronic pop music all in his distinct way and style, and all in his very own universe." [source]
Artist: Kettel Album: Whisper Me Wishes Label: DUB Release date: June 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Acid/Ambient Techno/Modern ClassicalTracklisting: 01. Any Waken Sly Blonda 02. And Unrequited As Well 03. Zutphen 04. Now Find Another Moon 05. Twijfel Doubt Hesitation 06. De Manke Das 08. Prairieplant 09. Blind Alleycat 10. One Foggy Ear 11. Veerooster 12. Marcos Cases 13. Coddle 14. Napels Vluchtplan Total running time: 47' 25" [Kettel - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player] [Kettel - Live Visuals] [Kettel - Live Visuals]
"Kettel, Reimer Eising, has been releasing electronic music for a number of years. He started off his impressive discography on Paradinas’ Planet Mu imprint with one of the renowned Mu 7”s. From there, Eising put music out a number of labels such as Civik, Kracfive, Neo Ouija and Djak-Up-Beats (DUB). Kettel has returned to DUB for his seventh solo album, Whisper Me Wishes.
Clone Records is a wonderfully diverse imprint, giving their listeners techno, house, electro, re-issued italo and electronica. Kettel has been a Clone favourite since the early 2000’s, and with good reason. Kettel doesn’t dish out run of the mill electronica, but blends a number of influences to create a rich recipe for electronic sound.
Whisper Me Wishes comes to life with the synthy piano chords and playful cut up beats of “Any Waken Sly Blonda.” “And Unrequited As Well” stays in the same line, keeping the playful upbeat electronics going whilst introducing some new elements. The track has an acoustic quality, one that is soon eclipsed by the modern computer sounds of “Zutphen.” Synthesizers and pleasant machine sounds are the focus of this bright, warm piece. A very nice piece of electronica. “Now Find Another Moon” gives the listener the first tastes of piano on the album. “Twijfel Doubt Hesitation” is a piano centred masterpiece of deep keys and haunting melodies. A wonderful piece of classical sound. “De Manke Das” keeps things in the same vein, bringing heart wrenching violins with simple and elegant keys. “Whisper Me Wishes" is the culmination of the piano-centric pieces, a short and beautiful piece to ease the listener back into the electrics.
The playful, childlike tones are back for “Prarieplant.” The track feels like it could be from a dreamlike drama segment, a whimsical and twilight piece of music. “Blind Alleycat” moves into more traditional electronic ground. The playful tones return for “One Foggy Ear” and the short “Veerooster.” “Macro’s Case” keeps the cheeky sounds going, but saunters in with some amazing computer game style synth movements. “Coddle” is a more dancefloor derived piece, with some wicked synthlines and sharp beats. “Naples Vluchtplan” cleans the listener’s palette with a serving of fresh, classical sounds.
Kettel has combined an array of styles for Whisper Me Wishes. Orchestral pieces reminiscent of ballet scores are turned over with fun filled electro sounds and experimented electronics. It is an album that is full of wonder and talent. Kettel has produced something that is unique, that is his own style and not just a categorical piece of electronic music. " [source]
"Since the overprogrammed debacle that was 2001's Drukqs, there've been zero transmissions from Planet Aphex. So when Richard D. James re-emerged at the start of the year with the launch of an extended series of EPs, the resulting response from his still-sizable cult mingled rejoicing, skepticism, and a heap of curiosity. Could techno's onetime greatest melodist possibly have anything more to give, or was he definitively burned out?
The analog-only concept underpinning Analord seems like a tacit admission that, like so many of his peers, during the late '90s James had gotten lost in the mire of options offered by state-of-art technology. Riddled with detail and addled by effects, Drukqs's delirium tremens of twitchy-glitchy beats and fruitless fruit-loopery suggested it was time for a drastic rethink. In the Dogme-like spirit of Holger Czukay's maxim "restriction is the mother of invention," on Analord James stages a strategic retreat to the sort of setup he used at the very start of his career some 15 years ago. He shuns digital signal processing, plug-ins, and "virtual studio technology" programs in favor of analog synths and sequencers, plus house music's favorite tools, the Roland 909 drum machine and the Roland 303 acid bass generator.
Consistent with the analog concept, these EPs are vinyl-only releases, high-quality pressings from whose deep grooves emanate sounds as thick and glossy as the platters themselves. Vinyl fiends always bang on about "warmth," but that's not exactly what you hear on Analord, given that the music is electronic and therefore innately icy. But even before you appraise the tracks as compositions, your ears are struck by the rich presence of the sound. Vinyl fetishism is also a crucial aspect of the EPs' visual appeal: Transparent sleeves invite your eyes to feast on the inky blackness.
Analord 11 is where the series has paused (for breath, or permanently, it's not clear), which makes now a good moment to survey the length and breadth of what by any standard constitutes a formidable amount of music (three 74-minute CD-Rs' worth) to have issued in barely six months. Alongside reverting to the restricted means available to him as a youth, it seems like James has also tried to recover the creative mind-set. Circa '95, jungle threw the entire "electronic listening music" community off balance, making producers focus their creativity on rhythmic complexity rather than haunting melody (the genre's true forte). Analord reverses that priority. The beats, while deftly programmed, assume a largely subservient role; mood and melodiousness return to the fore. These tracks invoke a time when the concept of "machine soul" was fresh and inspirational: the era of classic releases by Derrick May, Fingers Inc, LFO, et al., long before chopped-up breakbeats impinged on the "purity" of electronic music.
The crucial question, though, is whether any Analord tracks approach the heights of James's own classic phase (1991's "Analogue Bubblebath" to 1995's "Alberto Balsalm," approximately). The answer: not quite, but close enough. If the weaker material recalls the output of his early-'90s second-division pseudonyms, the better pieces—the lustrous chitter of "Boxingday" (A3), the cybernetic toad- jabber of "Analoggins" (A6), the writhy glisten of "Backdoor. Netshadow" (A9)—display his unique flair for clustered dissonances, ghostly harmonic wisps, and eerie in-between emotions. (Consumer Guide: Your best buys are 2, 3, 10, and 11). Intriguingly, the pieces that linger in the memory all possess a somber, sorrowful quality: the pensive, frowning chords of "Pissed Up in SE1" (A2), the weepy-eyed melody-foam of "Pwsteal.ldpinch.D" (A8), the dank mazes of glum that take up side two of Analord 11. Instrumentally, the most valued player isn't the near-omnipresent 303 but whatever reverb unit James uses to drape the sounds in his signature shroud of muzzy melancholy. You start to wonder: Could it be that the Aphex Twin is, like, depressed? Has he been dumped recently (one mournful ditty is titled "Where's Your Girlfriend?")? Or is this simply the blues of the innovator who ran out of future, and who's gone back in the hope of finding a better way forward?" [source]
Artist: The Tuss Album: Rushup Edge Label: Rephlex Release date: 25 June 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: Acid/Techno/ElectroTracklisting: 01. Synthacon 9 02. Last Rushup 10 03. Shiz Ko E 04. Rushup I Bank 12 05. Death Fuck 06. Goodbye Rute Total running time: 32' 43" [The Tuss - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player] [The Tuss - Rushup I Bank 12 - Video Clip]
"A quick introductory note for those with only a passing interest in home-listening electronic music: The Tuss is a new project on Rephlex that, due to a string of associations in the CD notes and various related MySpace pages, appears to have been authored at least in part (and probably completely) by Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin. If it turns out that someone other than James created the Tuss tracks, it was a brilliant hoax, complete with clues-- such as James hailing from Cornwall and "The Tuss" being Cornish slang for an erection-- scattered in all the right places.
We don't know for sure if Rushup Edge is James' work, but it certainly sounds like a continuation of and expansion upon the ground covered two years ago with dogged thoroughness on the 11-volume Analord series. But where that project maintained clear aesthetic boundaries, in which tracks were generally grounded in early techno and electro and timbres were derived from analog synths, the tracks on Rushup Edge feel more open and less tied to orthodoxy. While the quality of the sounds still loosely refers to the late 1980s up through the mid-90s, there's a brisker, more breakbeat-driven approach to rhythm and less focus on repetition compared to the Analord project.
The first two tracks in particular are packed with nimble but deceptively complex variation, and seem especially suggestive of James' programming and compositional virtuosity. "Synthacon 9" is almost six-and-a-half minutes of propulsive techno, but it dashes by in as instant, so full of ideas the track can't contain them. Every bar or two another element is introduced-- a grinding acid bass riff, bright synths neatly inverting the pattern, a brief rainfall of electronic handclaps, some indecipherable vocodered vocals-- and each is perfectly balanced, eminently logical but still surprising. "Last Rushup 10" also zips along at a good clip, churning through loads of compelling bass and drum interplay. Then, all of a sudden, a self-conscious but undeniably catchy "Far East" melody played on a lone synth appears, an escapee from a Yellow Magic Orchestra track, and from then on everything else plays out in relation to this new tune. A pretty nifty trick.
The first two tracks are near-masterpieces in James' (or anyone else's) oeuvre, so it's not surprising that the rest of the EP doesn't quite conform to the same standard. But everything else is listenable and interesting in its own way. "Shiz Ko E" is comparatively straight electro with unusual use of a warped and queasy vocal, while "Rushup I Bank 12" seamlessly melds acid bass, rough breakbeats, and piano in a disorienting but beautiful tapestry. The abrasive percussion workout "Death Fuck" is a bit more trying-- its solo piano interlude sounds tacked-on-- while the closing "Goodbye Rute" is spare, ghostly, and pleasingly alien. The latter is closer in spirit to a couple of the excerpted tracks currently found on the Tuss MySpace page, none of which are included here. They suggest another side to whoever is behind this thing: one closer-- whadayah know?-- to the more melodic side of a certain Richard D. James. Stay tuned." [source]
Artist: Kettel Album: My Dogan Label: Sending Orbs Release date: 29 May 2006 Genre: Electronic Style: Acid/Ambient Techno/AmbientTracklisting: 01. My Dogan 02. Dogan 9247 03. Mauerbrecher 04. Billiton Beruh With Cleo&Wouter 05. Little Tongues 06. Meeuwuh 07. Halt Him 08. Mannschaft 09. Follow Me! 10. Peeksje 1994 11. Sekt I Sing 12. Ok Norah 13. Sylvia 14. Afwezig 15. The Second 2006 16. Escape From ETA Th2 17. Choo Choo India 18. He's His Own Man Total running time: 70' 13""IDM producer Reimer Eisling cites Aphex Twin, his AFX moniker specifically, as his primary influence and on his seventh album, it becomes so clearly evident for the first time. Rarely does an electronic artist come so close to AFX's sound but hardly infringes due to Kettel's ability to separate himself from the twin. Kettel's talent for inventing and weaving complex melodies allows “Mauerbrecher”, which could very well be off AFX's Analord series, to transform into an erratic rollercoaster ride. “The Second 2006” sounds like it was taken directly from Drukqs but with this wide collection of tracks dwarfing those of other recent electronic works, there's plenty of room for the new ideas that Kettel always brings home with him besides the impressive AFX tracks. “Mannschaft” and “Sekt I sing” take simple melodies and lift them up to amazing heights while “Halt Him” and “Peeksje 1994” are some of Kettel's greatest ambient works to date that display the controlled usage of nature sounds to temper the album's fantastic theme. No doubt, the best IDM album of 2006." [source]
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