Move D and Benjamin Brunn's Songs from the Beehive counts as one of the year's most idiosyncratic electronic releases. A collaboration between Germans David Moufang (Move D) and Brunn, Songs overlaps little with signpost trends of the past few years, instead grasping for the type of been-there thwump-and-click so familiar you'll struggle to find a buzz-word buzzier than "techno." Drawing on almost all of its creators' past dalliances-- trip-hop, trance, minimal, dub, ambient-- Songs is an album that constantly whispers in your year, sometimes literally, and builds damp, murky headspaces out of its elliptical grooves.
That Songs trends towards the classic techno sounds shouldn't come as a huge surprise: Moufang has been an underground favorite since the early 1990s and Brunn has been releasing singles since 1999. And while this review is a little late on the come-up, make no mistake: Songs marks something of a breakthrough for Brunn and especially Moufang, the type of album that makes even electronic junkies-- those who have long praised Moufang's catalogue-- sit up and notice.
Songs consists of seven long-form tracks, most of which aim to soundtrack the soft-palate dancefloor in the back of your head. "Love the One You're With" encapsulates this cloistered clubby-ness, opening Songs with a chopped vocal sample and slow-change synth notes. A rhythmic chirp, stunted bass sequence, and spacey, panning notes are introduced slowly, like how an innertube sits motionless for a few moments as the motorboat tenses the line. The ingredients undoubtedly sound familiar, but Brunn and Moufang make subtle upgrades: The high-pitched chirp that anchors the track sounds like an insect, while the clipped vocals are indecipherable speech, not song.
"Love the One You're With" is the first of three long tracks to open Songs, which gives the opening 40 minutes of the album a hazy, marathon feel. "Honey" ramps up the fastest, beginning with skittish bass notes before Moufang and Brunn coax out a quick 4/4 kick. The track is an exercise in tempo: Long ambient drones contrast with flurries of rainbow notes and taut rhythms. "Velvet Paws" searches purposefully without ever wandering, as Moufang and Brunn tend to the track's early morning orbits with patient, veteran fingers.
The prize at the end of the three-headed marathon is Songs' most singular track, "Like a Restless Sea", which loops a whispered refrain-- "The wind that moves the trees like a restless sea"-- over distended, subtly rhythmic keyboard noise. Indeed, most of the motion in the track is provided by its hushed voice-- a stressed syllable on "rest" serves as the track's tether-- and the result sounds like Moufang and Brunn singing a lullaby to house music.
Album closer "Radar", clocking in at nearly 21 minutes, sounds forward and flirtatious, a bulbous, trance-y floor-filler that dissipates into murky, rhythmic clatter and one miniature, exhilarated voice. Moufang and Brunn have long proved themselves bright, dedicated composers, but Songs represents a new high for both: a careful, vibrant long-player from two unheralded 12" warriors that should make thoughts and soles move with equal grace.
