This album was a recent collaborative effort between Cluster/Kluster founder Dieter Moebius and Asmus Teitchens. This was the first album I’ve listened to by either artist, and though I’m familiar with them both, I can’t quite remember where I knew Tietchens from. Most likely, the comic book work of Matt Howarth, barring any obvious light bulbs over my head.

Bureau B | GER | CD | 2012 | BB 108

#9 • Moebius + Tietchens: Same Title  GER CD [2012]

1. Cremon
2. Kattrepel
3. Vincent
4. Thorax
5. Yes, Yes
6. Fontenay
7. Lange Reihe
8. Raboisen
9. Im Windkanal
10. Grimm
11. Herrlichkeit
12. Plan
13. Mach Auf!

The great cover on this release says a lot about what waits the listener on the disc itself. Concentric circles of light ever expanding and closed into loops. The overall complexion of this album is of rhythmic loops fleshed out with further glitch elements and dustings of some extreme noise; much of it high frequency in nature. The opening track “Cremon” is constructed from foreboding chords that build like foghorns in the distance while the tracks ambience attains an otherworldly, ghost-like translucence.

That track is followed by one of two nearly ten minute tracks on the album. “Kottrepel” features a plethora of squirting high-frequency noise [I’d guess 15 KHz+] that are almost regularly interjected over rolling rhythmic loops. As the track builds over time, the piercing chirps remain constant throughout the duration while the underlying groove becomes deeper. The song’s length accentuates the trance-like attributed of the cut.

The funky glitch loops of “Thorax” have their melodic impetus from the fat dollops of lead patches that roll through the rhythmic landscape. The mood is relaxed, but only for a moment. The next track, “Yes, Yes,” is built with panting, almost wheezing sample loops that have been  constructed from many disparate elements. The rhythm bed is made from glitch loops with added deep squelches that suggest a near orgasmic frenzy as the cut reaches its fevered climax.

The other long cut that is nearly eleven minutes is “Lange Reihe.” The extremely minimal composition has a degenerated waltz loop as its rhythmic foundation with almost random infusions of glitch sounds that are abstract but resemble the grunts of pigs rooting in a trough! “Im Windkanal” doesn’t exactly lighten the mood over the course of the brief 2:41 piece that offers only unresolved tension in which an arrhythmically placed operatic sample [or what sounds like it] only serves to heighten the sense of anxiety contained within the track.

The minimal and overly repetitive trance groove attempted here is, to my ears, undermined by the extensive flavoring with glitch elements that is the consistent trope used throughout the program. The novelty of the sounds used here, are not compensation for the overly repetitive and ultimately, off-putting overall vibe which results in music that’s neither fish nor fowl.

CONCLUSION: recycle

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