Pitchfork's kompakt review

so indie kids will read the reviews, think 'hmm, that sounds sucky', but go to techno nights anyway, just to complain?

god, i haven't heard the word techno since, like, 1994!

Haven't you? Where have you been?

now you're just being silly.

you're going home in a fucking ambience!

Have record reviews become such a standard to judge if music is actually good or not.
not sure I understand this remark. please explain.

This comment and many others that I have read in reviews bother me. When writers go on about how a record was reviewed while reviewing a record, it just bothers me. But my real problem is reviewing tracks meant for a DJ set. Though placed in an album format, most techno or house music dosen't really come alive till played in a set. Not to say reviews for this music should exist, A litttle more perspective would be nice.

you've got to tailor reviews to the likely audience though, no? I don't read Pitchfork at all unless someone links one of their reviews on ILM, but I am the sort of person who consumes Kompakt stuff solely at home via my CD player. So jess's review + overview is useful from my perspective.

(in fact I almost take offense at the idea I can't appreciate a piece of music fully unless I've (also) heard it in a DJ set!)

please explain some more

just because techno is "designed" for x-purpose doesn;t mean the reviewer needs to take this into account. there is a strand in rock (ie clapton-type stuff) that provileges virtuosity and the live performance and distrusts modern production techniques -- you have to 'really play' i think there are affinities with the 'it's meant for clubs' mentality.

zebedee, I did not intend to offend, I have played at a lot of parties with readers of pitchfork, and they only request rock influenced music, which I will not even call dance music ie. DFA, Le tigre..... I only would like techno to be review with a djs view

"It is a form which is designed to be used in multiple contexts, and - whilst one of these is home listening as a single track - there are many other possible juxtapositions possible."

cf every musical form ever.

"I only would like techno to be review with a djs view"

!!

i sympathise with being asked to play stuff that isn't 'really' dance, but all the same, remember you are playing "parties".

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), August 11th, 2005 1:11 PM. (jaymc) (link) (admin) (userip)

i have to voice in on this... techno is more of a specific genre of electronic music than people will accept. when i think of techno i think of tresor, suregeon, ruskin, oliver ho, henrik b, chris liebing etc... there are definitely techno records on kompakt and i like them a lot, but i was always under the impression that most of it fell under the tech-house term or ambient...

not that all terms are not silly, but usually when people start delving into electronic music and then dig into the underground area inhabited by tresor and so on, they are scared off, when they are confronted with the harder edged straight forward techno.

techno as a specific genre is sort of in a stasis at the moment, but i do think it is about to rebirth due to the experimentation of people like ho, who's light and dark series is truly inspiring.

"COME WITH US! TECHNO IS HERE TO STAY!!"

...what he said.

agreed on that... usually when i hear the term now is when i am at DJ stores buying techno records like Liebing and so on... and it is used rightly so.

1) This CD is for sale to the general public in shops and plenty of people enjoy Kompakt releases who never go to clubs;

2) I hope Jess if he's reading this appreciates the guilt-by-association that can come from reviewing for Pitchfork -- now he's an "indie kid" who doesn’t understand the context of dance music;

3) Does this review really read as though he doesn't understand the Kompakt catalog? He may have different ideas about the label's peaks, but come on -- you can tell he's listened closely to almost all of it.

Despite all that, I do think the context in which dance music is discussed is an interesting topic so I'm glad for this thread.

i do see what you are saying and honestly i hate slapping tags on music of any variety. really, it is either shit or it is not... that easy. i do agree with you on techno heads liking what they are doing more than the house crew as you said. so... it probably is easier to push it to the techno side. i was mostly speaking from the angle of watching and hearing people become very aggravated when i put on a ruskin disc for example because it is quote-un-quote... too techno. :)

also, jess reviwed the 24-track CD rather than the eight-track LP version.

2) ha ha you bastard

3) up next is a weekly feature where i review EVERY KOMPAKT SINGLE from "triumph" to spiecher 666

haha i don't think simon hardly danced at all that night! maybe he was trying to keep his "cool" as dance dude #1.

There was a faintly hilarious thread on the Planet Mu board, regarding his review of the Exile album, that said exactly the same thing

god forbid Pitchfork makes dance music actually sound intriguing enough to get people to try something new.

ihttp://www.soniculture.com/abr2005/superpitcher2.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/fez_/tehrave.jpg
POLYRHYTHM ONE TWO THREE ONE TWO THREE FOUR SECOND TEIL KICKING IN SYNCHROSTROBE SYMBIOSIS ARM SORE HEAD GONE NEED GUM

haha!

standing around complaining = trying something new?

No cross to bear
No reason to care
My life was all up in air

Four to the floor I was sure, never seeing you clear
I could have it all, whenever you are near

The Iron hand
Did not understand
The plight of the common man

Four to the floor I was sure, never seeing clear
I could have it all, whenever you are near

Four to the floor I was sure, that she would be my girl
We’d rent a little world, we’d have a little girl

Four to the floor I was sure, never seeing clear
I could have it all, if only you were here

Four to the floor I was sure, that she would be my girl
We’d rent a little world, we’d have a little girl

Four to the floor I was sure, never seeing clear
I could have it all, whenever you are near

They can always, you know, leave.

xpost

smash your copy of Atlas Shrugged over a kitten's head.

I have heightened sense of hearing like Wolverine.

My indie duder friends have mentioned thinking about buying Total 6 now. Thanks jess!

I've much prefered Tobias Thomas and Heib who were very techno. Superpitcher was a little too much like Mayer's new-trance angle, but had a bit more pop.

kompakt jumped the shark with 'shuffle-tech'

Did anyone outside one ILM thread ever use this term?

Haha how close was the grimer h8 mail though?

thats interesting. ive only seen tobias thomas as warm-up flunky for mayer or superpitcher and i never thought of him as very techno. the last time i saw him he played an hour of pop ambient! (otm about heib tho)

I wish that online mix thing was a monthly deal actually. It's a chore sifting through every pirate session and random mix (esp. when some of them are like 2 hours long.)

Yeah, Elijah Wood has this place as his homepage.

xpost: there may be a reason for that guys

as always, scarily, i think more people are aware of ilx than we think

hey look, stylus reviewed total 6 too, whaddaya know..

Is a new Foxy Brown album coming out by the way? That Sizzla track is great.

After that, it's bit paragraph write-ups on web record store sites like Boomcat and Bent Crayon (which actually doesn't sell records via the internet last I checked- they just pretend to). I doubt upcoming magazine reviews will be more insightful.

My point being that all of us Kompakt and/or dance fans should be grateful that SOMEONE is actually taking the time to do this. The fact that he does it well is a bonus.

Every magazine I read that would likely cover this type of thing seems more slanted toward big-cheese DJs like Oakenfold, or electronic-pop ala Goldfrapp.

I guess The Wire might hit it, but not for more than a paragraph...

I don't think I'm inviting trouble by suggesting I actually APPRECIATE reading a review that says more than "it's Kompakt, German powerhouse label still running strong, great new tracks, buy it now..."

Just wait until that eBay auction in the 2010s where some guy is going to auction off the entire Kompakt 12" discography.

Also, Shitkatapult has been doing pretty well lately, in comparison.. as has Ghostly.

i hope youre not referring to zone day

I don't think the comparison is particularly apt either, but I have heard half a dozen different people make it already, so I wouldn't really bother calling them out on that.

Stylus! They are podcasts on dance music, as well as reviews of the latest micro/minimal/etc that has been released on 12" and CD. Who else is going to review Frank Martiniq?

It's a three song EP, and "Zone Day" is one of the tracks I think. So, sorry. It's.. eh.. alright.. but it's the first one I bought without previewing, since the last couple I got have been great. Teaches me to trust a band sans previewing. sigh.

-- u & m (poo...), August 19th, 2005.

so much in this thread to comment on, but this non sequitur keeps tripping me up. i always thought ayn rand's popularity -- and her ultimate fallacy -- lay in her simplicity. not simple enough, i guess, because wtf does this situation have to do with Atlas Shrugged?

I stand corrected.

I was sold with "MORE WARM BREAD" alone.

Seriously- that first sentence should begin every future Kompakt press release.

It reminds me of that recent doc where Wolfgang Voigt gives a tender mention of the daily vegetarian meal they prepare in the Kompakt offices....

Kompakt IS comfort food!

Agreed, MG. I didn't mention Stylus, which has reviewed quite a bit of Kompakt, and I do check them out regularly.

-- Al (hoteloper...), August 19th, 2005.

I've only heard it from Sean and O-Dub, although I haven't really been keeping up with the online rap community these days.

I have a "techno" playlist on my ipod and it's separate from the "electrohouse" and "minimal" playlists!

-- deej.. (ei...), August 19th, 2005.

I meant more like, I've heard at least a couple radio DJ's compare "Lighters Up" to Lauryn Hill, not just speaking about a bubble in the internet but the general public response to the record.

I liked Jess's article a lot, it was good solid Jessishness (does anyone else just know the moment they start reading one of his pieces that it's him? I mean that as a big compliment. I think I've internalised his crit-voice as a super-ego or something).

I think that the public-critical narrative of Kompakt's boom-and-bust cycle is something that's only possible because of the hyper-attention some of us pay to the label, and the way the label encourages this part-time completism via its comps etc. (one can buy the "Total" comps and "Kompakt 100", plus the albums, and feel like they've got a handle on what the label is doing - Jacob's criticisms on this point are off-base to the extent that Kompakt seems to want this reaction; also because Jess actually does lay down mad cash for all the 12 inches!). It makes one want to over-interpret everything as a symptom (good or bad) or intentional and significant narrative event (like the way no-one coughs in a film unless they're about to get TB or consumption).

I mean, Total 5 is a pretty great album! The Joachim Spieth track, Scsi-9, Thomas Fehlmann, and Mayer's "Speaker" crept from behind to become one of my favourite things ever. And yet the fact that it is weaker than Total 2, 3, 4 and apparently 6 has taken on a certain aura of (traumatic) significance

Um really?

xpost

Um really? "

Well he seems to or he's a bit cagey when he writes about this stuff on his blog. I remember him talking about such and such being the best 12 they'd released in a while etc. etc. Maybe I'm underestimating the power of slsk. Point being he's not just listening to the comps!

What I meant by this was that when I write something I often hear Jess's voice in my head telling me why it's wrong. Also Rob Them Co. And you Vahid!

Tim, I am surprised that you don't do any home djing. That said, I could see it becoming all consuming for you, so perhaps you should avoid it!

Personally I hadn't noticed Kompakt being better or worse than usual of late (though I haven't checked out total 6 yet). Really enjoying Speicher 31 at the moment.

I do think the Kompakt label and artists seem to get a disproportionate amount of attention in online sites and forums... Producers like Alex Smoke and Jay Haze who I rate just as highly rarely seem to get mentioned.

I like Jay Haze! His stuff provides a nice dose of jack to the sometimes cold microhouse proceedings.

Is he behind those "Tuning Spork Family Affair" releases. I love those.

I just like to sit around and sniff my copy of UR-21.

Shoot me an email Jacob, Austin needs all the heads it can get.

Yes, but also more than that! It's hard to explain.

!!!! Adam you are very evil, I will never be able to listen to this the same way again.

From their review of Total 10:

DJ Koze, one of the label's more underrated producers, kicks things off with "40 Love", a blippy...

Whatcha trying to get at?

Oh lord, my first thread revived.

xpost: don't you get it? saying dj koze is kompakt's more underrated producer is like saying animal collective is domino's more underrated band.

gui boratto is more overrated imo

To be fair, the kind of people who think DJ Koze is Kompakt's best producer tend to be the same people who think Kompakt generally jumped the shark some time ago. If Koze is Animal Collective then Superpitcher is Mercury Rev.

moonship: we're talking about underrated in case you haven't noticed. hehe

tim f: i don't quite get what you're trying to say but my point is that koze is highly rated by the majority. so that reviewer may be out of step by saying he's underrated.

saying he's underrated is pretty much overrating him at this point tho

enlightening music discussion

Who is "the majority" in this particular case though danzig? The techno enthusiasts who (yes, in 2009 probably over-) rate DJ Koze, or yer typical dilettante who might read pitchfork reviews to decide whether they still need to keep up with Kompakt now that everyone seems to be talking about Zomby etc.

the first one, tim

danzig I get you. Saying "one of the label's more underrated producers" makes it sound like he hasn't been critically feted for years now. Smacks of someone who hasn't been paying attention, frankly.

yes, that's what i mean. it's that simple.

I hate all this over/under stuff as it's all so dependant on who is doing the rating. That said, and since it's fun, saying koze is underrated is sort of insane. He is surely the only kompakt artist being praised these days. But "x is over/underrated" is prob one of the weirdest and most repetetive memes