Anthony Pappa: Moments
High Note

When future historians look back in search of a handy reference for electronic dance music circa 2008 (with a primary emphasis on minimal techno), they could do a whole lot worse than pick Anthony Pappa's double-disc Moments as an exemplar. The Australian DJ moves lithely through a twenty-nine track set-list that include contributions from Pär Grindvik, DJ Koze, John Tejada, Jorg Burger, Barem, and Pappa himself.

Martin Buttrich's remix of Friendly People's “Music Is Improper” gets things moving nicely with a roiling cut spiked with a female vocal coolly chanting the title. Ryo Murakami's “My Soul” gives old-school techno a funky spin, and DJ Koze adds spice to the mix with the tech-house twister “Mariposa.” Stormers? Try Pär Grindvik's broiling titan “World of Mine,” Pappa's own “Outback,” a motorik throwdown of dub-funk and electro-schaffel, Mark Broom's stalker remix of Gel Abril's “Your Face is a Mess,” and Rekorder's “Rekorder 10.2” for starters. The mood gets twisted near the end of disc one with the squirrelly electro-funk twang of John Tejada's “Labyrinth” and Tom Wax's “Euphoria.” Disc two opens at a dizzying pace with Applescal's gyroscopic “Joey's Mouse” and Avilo's “Rubicon” and stays the course with the light-speed “Smith & Selway Contril Remix” of Jamie Stevens' “Keep Her Space” before Chris Fortier kindly thrusts his makeover of Vincent Vega's, ahem, “Rectum” into our collective faces. Two hours-plus of disembodied voices, thunderous bass lines, and well-lubricated beats.

May 2008