TODD BODINE
Forms
Highgrade CD

After Todd's recent LA performance we've been anticipating the release of his third studio album, and it was well worth the wait...

Forms is perhaps the most complex and mature album to date from Berlin producer and DJ Todd Bodine. As a DJ playing around the world and as a producer in the highest ranks of consistency, Todd Bodine has constantly developed as an artist. Releases and remixes on respected labels, and collaborations with various artists have made him an internationally popular electronic musician. In 2007, he finally began to perform as a live act, and, as Todd shows with Forms, his innate knowledge of the two sides of electronic dance music has only exponentially increased. This is a meeting of peak-time euphoria with the relaxing bliss of the hazy morning light. A meeting of hypnotic natural rhythms and driving, cut-up sounds. Todd can impress you with dancefloor bombs and also with his sophisticated sound visions. The sound of Detroit would probably be the best comparison. All of the tracks are cleverly designed to work without being overly intellectual. Everything flows and is filled with a subtle density of character that is well-known to those familiar with Todd Bodine. This album speaks its own language -- a rare and unique form of communication that very few other producers are able to replicate. Minimal tech-house at its most severely pumping and addictive.


MATIAS AGUAYO
Ay Ay Ay
KOMPAKT

This is Matias Aguayo's second full-length for Kompakt. Chilean born, German raised Matias Aguayo is one of those rare talents you come across that genuinely works in music for the sake of loving music. Kompakt's long love affair with Matias Aguayo runs all the way back to his first official act (together with Dirk Leyers) as Closer Musik back in 2000. Though short lived, their releases were foundation builders for the label and still stand as relevant as the day the songs were recorded. Following their demise, Matias felt the urge to abandon the rules that he felt techno imposed on him and moved toward a more organic approach to making music. His first foray into this would be with his 2005 debut solo album Are You Really Lost (KOM 044CD). Matias returned to Kompakt in 2008 with 2 12" bombs -- the club anthems "Minimal" and "Walter Neff." Feeling refreshed and inspired from travelling throughout Latin America, Aguayo was back to end the cycle of boredom that was permeating dance music! That brings us to his sophomore full length Ay Ay Ay. Recorded in Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Paris together with Vicente Sanfuentes (Original Hamster), Matias has conjured an impossibly unclassifiable full-length that is certain to surprise and elate anyone that should come across this true breakthrough of a recording. Take opener "Menta Latte" -- countless layers of his voice revel in a psychedelic dream park together with a simple xylophone chord. The chorus of Matias' unpretentious first single "Rollerskate" is damned to stay on auto repeat in your head for days. His leanings to traditional African music resonate with the beautiful crooner "Koro Koro." Fans of his recent singles will rejoice to the rhythm of songs "Me Vuelvo Loca" and "Juanita" -- Latin harmonies embraced with Matias coaxing you to get up and dance. To call Ay Ay Ay ambitious would be an understatement -- Matias Aguayo has managed to come up with a recording that is undeniably all his own and a landmark release for Kompakt.

Dark music for Dark Warehouses...

HEINRICHS & HIRTENFELLNER
Dark Orbit CD (HIGHGRADE 062CD)

This is the debut full-length release on Highgrade by Berlin-based Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner. The duo asked the question: "Is there life in outer space?" and were answered easily by the sound-universe that they created on Dark Orbit. From the mesmerizing glitter of "Supernova," to the funky vocal cuts drifting through "Starry Fog," to the off-the-beaten-track explorations of "Hubble," this album maps out new galaxies and star systems of sound. "Quantum Jump" is a springboard to a parallel universe made out of pulsating bass and vocal sequences, echoing to us from the depths of space. The "Black Hole" in Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner's world works somehow backwards -- instead of eating energy, it spills all over -- making the impact of this track as powerful as a meteor storm. "Alpha Particle" sounds like a lunar probe on speed, while "My Gravitation" shows perfectly how to build massive club-hits from dreamy sequences. Despite all this journeying, Dark Orbit never gets lost: it remains a fresh club album that always shows a subtle grasp of humor, weird sounds, and small oddities -- the perfection of the added human touch. The CD version also includes small interludes which serve as anchoring, central themes, like map-coordinates on a pleasant flight.


EXERCISE ONE
In Cars We Rust
(MOBILEE 008CD)

This is the debut full-length release by Berlin duo Exercise One (Marco Freivogel and Ingo Gansera). DJs know them as crafters of cracking tracks on wax. Clubbers around the world know them as an unstoppable live act. Now, prepare to meet another side of Exercise One. On In Cars We Rust, the dancefloor stormers are still here, and the record's flow is guided by the same spirit of improvisation that drives their live sets. But the clubbier material is rounded out by sounds we've never heard from Exercise One before: gorgeous, enveloping ambient tracks; soundtrack-ready synthesizer ballads; even a kind of retro-futurist electro-pop. In Cars We Rust is the studio product of their hands-on approach, as passages of spontaneous creation are edited, collaged and remixed into a strikingly varied, startlingly cohesive whole. "Circeo" comes on like dawn, with a rustle of percussion and muted horns giving way to slowly unfurling chords and gentle electro-acoustic chatter -- featuring Seth Josel on guitar, it's an ambient palate-cleanser to prep you for the deep-listening experience to follow. The beats begin on "1994," which eases out of the intro with shimmering keys and a shimmying beat, nearly dissolving into bubbly echoes of Steve Reich. "It Is Happening Again" features home-hewn breaks and a monster bass line courtesy of Jacopo Carreras. "Trapdoor" cools off with a taut, undulating spiral of metallic percussion and oscillators. "The Drunken Tinman" is low-slung funk, skipping dry drum machines across a sludge-pool of charred, muddied bass and dubby chords. After that, "Good Kid" rouses with cinematic strings and a drunken piano line. "No News Today" features Argenis Brito's distinctive vocals, and is the perfect fusion of electronic production with a classic pop sensibility. "Sleeper" boasts lush chords, diamond-tipped drums and spiraling oscillators. "What You Say" is a lean, mean percussive groover, and "Don't Slip" slows the tempo and loses itself in a field of freaky bleeps. The breathtaking finale "Just Not!" feels like an amalgam of all of Exercise One's deepest tendencies, as ropy bass lines, dissipating chords and intricate rhythms spin together into a hypnotic, pulsing whole.