Let's get a couple of things out of the way from the start. First, DJ Koze's All People Is My Friends is probably the least essential mix CD ever released on Kompakt. Second, that's a meaningless statement. Over the past few years, Michael Mayer's Cologne-based label has been as consistently rewarding as any in the world, and even its relatively weaker output still carries recommendations. The bar set by mixes such as Mayer's Immer or Triple R's Friends is so high that to say a subsequent record doesn't clear that mark leaves only the faintest hint of its relative quality.
To be fair, even if All People Is My Friends weren't a less satisfactory listen than most of those others, the comparison is also a bit faulty because this record embraces a different aesthetic than most Kompakt mixes. As the title indicates, DJ Koze casts a wider net than most, eschewing tech-house for large swathes of his set and including outsider music, folk-pop, ambient, and beatless noodling. In that sense, it skirts closest to Tobias Thomas' Smallville, although whereas that panoramic mix unfolded with grace and elegance, Koze casts himself adrift, wandering a zig-zag path with some abrupt tempo and style changes, exemplified with a wink and a nod perhaps by his early inclusion of the Langley Schools Music Project's sparse reading of "The Long and Winding Road".
What often seems like a scattershot selection of records is infused with senses of nostalgia and comfort. That gooey familiarity is manifested in both Koze's inclusion of well-known electro tracks from Mr. Oizo and Smith N Hack and selections from tech-house pioneers such as Thomas Brinkmann, Isolée, and Jan Jelinek (in this case, avec The Exposures). Even more curious, Koze explores elements of music's permeation into both pop culture and our everyday lives. So Mr. Oizo nicks his song title from Indeep, a bit of "Personal Jesus" finds its way into The Christians and Konrad Sprenger's "I Was Yours", the Langley Schools Music Project covers 60s pop, and Koze's set itself closes with a (probably) drunken singalong of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". These referential nods and out-of-leftfield recordings illustrate the feedback loop on which pop music feeds-- particularly in a club context, in which the dialogue between performer and patron is both immediate and two-way.
Koze takes a bit of time to get a proper foothold, but once an underwhelming beginning fades further in the rearview, there's a lot to like. Highlights from Isoleé and Jelinek should be well known to tech-house listeners by now, but among the lesser-known tracks, there are at least three real gems: Fabrice Lig's "Meet U in Brooklyn", Jackmate's "80sc 7seq", and Matthew Jonson's "Typerope", each of which are among the deepest and most vivacious tracks on the mix. Because DJ Koze's own productions are often hard-charging, it's a slight shock that, on the whole, the mix is so delicate-- even his own contribution, "Geklöppel B2" is arid and spacious-- but if this record is full of anything, it's surprises.
