Review
PRE-ORDER ITEM : Expected January 1st 1970. This item will only be shipped to you on or after the official release date. Please note any orders containing pre-order items won't be shipped until all items are available, so please order this separately to avoid delays. Please remember that release dates are at the mercy of labels, distributors, and pressing plants and will change constantly.
EP1 – the first of two EP’s that precede an autumn release of a full album of electronically-angled remixes – sees two serious heavyweights of minimal techno delivering very different, yet complentary versions of tracks taken from April 2011’s brilliant Salon des Amateurs album, itself a critica lly-acclaimed, highly original take on techno / house music for prepared piano with orchestral instruments and drumkit. This first release sees three artists, each based in Hauschka’s native Germany, get to grips with his material. Fresh from working together on their recent double album where the pair were given free reign to remix the modern jazz / classical label ECM’s vast catalogue, Berlin-based, Chilean-born minimal techno heavyweight Ricardo Villalobos again teams up with Max Loderbauer (previously one half of ‘90s ambient techno unit Sun Electric, and a member ofThe Moritz Von Oswald Trio) for a remix of ‘Cube’. Glitchy and fractured with bristling electronic micro-detailing, whilst retaining the propulsion and core piano phrasing of the original, they sift out a shimmering, pinpricked, deeply textured track that’s a real treat for the ear. On the flipside, Cologne-based Michael Mayer – co-owner of the massively influentialKompakt label – turns in a hugely impressive floor-friendly reversioning of ‘Radar’. Also utilising key phrases from the original, it hooks in the listener by ramping up the tension through a swelling, ever-progressive narrative – adding snaking, arpegiated bass and string stabs, and masterfully building bar-by-bar towards a euphoric plateaux.