There was a day when loyalty to labels was more common sense than stubborn naivete. Most of the big indies-- Creation, Warp, 4AD, Sarah, Tommy Boy, Touch and Go, Drag City, Matador, Mute, and Rough Trade, among others-- had identifiable sounds, common sensibilities, and fairly consistent strike rate. Today I can count the number of labels I somewhat consistently embrace on just two fingers: Soul Jazz (a London-based, mostly reissue label) and Kompakt.
Based in Cologne, Germany, Kompakt was founded by Wolfgang Voigt, and is co-run by Michael Mayer. It cultivates a style of microhouse characterized by a minimalist, textural, and spacious brand of German techno that embraces elements of dub and clicks-and-cuts in equal measure. In the past year or so, the label hasn't shied away from vocals or more overtly pop song structures...yet almost none of their hallmarks are on Speicher.
The Speicher mix-- primarily drawn from the label's twelve-inch series of the same name-- is considerably more dancefloor-friendly and rooted in traditional house rhythms than anything the label has released previously. Bass-driven, direct and muscular, and completely grounded in 4/4 time, much of the mix belies German techno's recent embrace of electro. Although it's nowhere near as overtly shiny as Kompakt's recent Total 4 and virtually free of vocals, Speicher still sounds-- in some spots-- as much like the Hacker or Zombie Nation as it does the Perlon label.
Mayer architects this 70-minute mix, but it's difficult to toss garlands at his feet: he's arranging tracks from a small pool of records. That's not a knock on his efforts as a DJ-- displayed on both the near-flawless Immer and a recent Peel Session-- but it should be a point of pride for his work, as a co-label head and ear for talent.
Many of the tracks here are a couple of years old: the mix features a host of Kompakt's more recognizable, longstanding producers. Superpitcher and Reinhard Voigt each supply two tracks; Voigt also collaborates with both his brother Wolfgang (on the sultry album closer "Vision 03") and Mayer (on the melodic "Unter Null"). Our DJ even tosses in one of his own tracks for good measure. Mayer selects worthy conspirators: T. Raumschmiere's "Musick" has a playful, mechanic skip which dances between typical Cologne robotics and the shuffletech sound, and Guentner-- who almost single-handedly rendered the Pop Ambient series unnecessary with his debut album In Moll-- offers the chime-infused "Regensburg (Wasserman mix)".
Superpitcher shines brightest here, which is to be expected if you're familiar with Kompakt's output. The unofficial word on die Stra\xDFe is that he'll finally release a full album later this year, but until then, this mix drags a couple more of his tracks onto CD (ten of the 12 tracks first appeared on Kompakt's twelve-inch series, and are available on disc for the first time). Superpitcher's "Irre" kicks off the set, with a throbbing bass and crisp, lockstep rhythm not unlike the more restrained sections of Vitalic's Poney EP. Like much of the record's first half, "Irre" only layers a few basic sounds on top of one another, but uses them to combine an anthemic drone and the dirty bristle. On "Fieber", Superpitcher kicks off the record's more sun-kissed half-- also highlighted by the rolling rhythms of Reinhard Voigt's "Supertiel"-- with a slice of elastic digital disco that comes closest to echoing the label's famed dub-house beat.
Fittingly, Mayer himself provides the only vocals on the mix, a monotone delivery of Sade's "Love Is Stronger Than Pride". Almost unrecognizable when compared to the original, the song's frail sentiment and bottom-heavy throb was first aired on Miss Kittin's cover-mounted mix for the soon-to-be-defunct Musik magazine, an implicit declaration of the track's tangential relationship to electroclash. It's no wonder she embraced it: Mayer is practically doing a Kittin impersonation on vocals.
With so many producers out of their typical elements, there's the worry that many tracks could sound like mimicry. That's not the case, but there's too much of a fish-out-of-water quality to this disc for it to be considered either a topnotch Kompakt release, or a guaranteed floor filler. Trapped between embracing the dancefloor and showing loyalty to the label's typically more sophisticated, layered sounds, Speicher isn't the best introduction to the label-- Total 3 and Immer co-own that claim-- but it's a fascinating addition to the still-bulletproof Kompakt roster.
