While Michaela Dippel, aka Ada, isn't quite a household name in the electronic music world, she has two very solid albums under her belt: 2004's beat workout Blondie and 2009's LP-length Kompkat mix Adaptations. The latter was especially appealing for its balance of ambient techno and pop, and it brought together disparate artists like Tracey Thorn and DJ Koze in a way that felt natural and fun. You could recommend it to somebody without much interest in minimal techno and be pretty confident they'd dig it. So it's reasonable to anticipate good things from Ada's latest, Meine Zarten Pfoten, but the album defies expectations to the point that it's actually kind of puzzling.
Rather than embrace her techno past or more fully flesh out Adaptation's mixed-genre approach, what Ada does here is go almost completely soft pop. Like, "Girl From Ipanema" soft pop. Now, I think there's a kernel of a good idea here, maybe something building out from Saint Etienne's elegant travelogue music, but what we get feels tamer than that. Songs like opener "Faith" are so airy and peaceful that they seem flat, and there's generally a weird avoidance of beats. It's hard to imagine "Likely"-- composed mainly of acoustic guitar strumming and chintzy organ-- being worse off with some force behind it.
If that sounds harsh, it's because I think Ada is capable of stronger material, and she shows that during the record's second half. Here, the pillowy folk vibe that occurs throughout much of Meine Zarten Pfoten (which tellingly translates to "my tender paws") breaks up some to reveal tracks that are more dynamic and tightly constructed. You've got stuff like "At the Gate", patient deep house that builds to a hypnotic climax, and "Intro" (strangely not the first song), which is rich ambient techno that showcases Ada's gifts for texture and slow burn. The thing about these highlights, though, is that they're quite separate from the rest of the LP-- different enough in tone and style that they almost don't fit. Together with the ultra-mellow atmosphere, this lack of cohesion makes the album feel messy, and maybe worse, a little boring.
