★★☆☆☆
What is it exactly, Macro man Stefan Goldmann of German house and techno’s front pages, that happens at ten to six in the evening then? It’s time to learn a lesson about something from nothing, and how old technology can sound future-bound while pitched sample-free. More scientific formula then than place on the day’s to-do list, initially the results are more a victory for sterility and efficiency, a feat of engineering that won’t hang up its white coat. “Carrion Crow” is such a demonstration of hazard alarms and beats calibrated by stopwatch, displacing the presence of Seinfeld bass. The automated start does develop, Goldmann feeding brainfood to the machinery so as to make it more user-friendly, and progressing the dance floor pull, literally hammering out the kinks from the iron-wrought minimalism of “Rigid Chain.”
With its off-sync riff, “The Outness Queens” goes from art exhibit to leftfield deep techno mover, then back into some weird kids show shanty that is the sloppily inane “Manila Grind”. The prolonged simplicities of “Adem,” aiming for less with a semi-intentionally Egyptian-sounding riff, could easily drive you round the bend. It seems a simple solution, but when the basics get bolstered, as on “Empty Suit” with its clatter of hi-hats and synth convergence, the grittiness is for the better. It becomes apparent that the diagrams and textbook theories aren’t translating to disc, and Goldmann is down a component or two.
File under: Finn Johannsen, Barricade, Fennesz