Sinner DC: Mount Age
Ai Records

Mount Age, Sinner DC's second album and first for Ai Records, merges the sleek propulsion of Kompakt techno with Ghostly's stylistic finesse. While the Geneva-based trio's sound is as polished as its Ai counterparts, Sinner DC (Julien Amey, Steve Mamie, Manuel Bravo) opts for an atmospheric shoegaze-techno hybrid that distances it from its label kin. In “On & On” and “Lady March,” the group anchors songs with dub-techno beats, then builds multiple layers of blurry monotone vocals (sometimes vocodered), shuddering guitars, and wavering horn melodies overtop until tracks become dense masses of pumping electro-intensity. Representative of the trio's style, the spectral opener “Everything Is Sand” drapes aquatic piano chords, nosedive guitar swoops, and monotone murmurs over languid techno beats, while breathy vocals in the hypnotically looping “Wintertown” exude a David Gilmour-like softness. Deviating from the predominating style, “Afterland” merges Gas-styled orchestral ambient and Kraftwerk beats, after which “Babycat” breaks from the aggressive attack with a submersive foray that glimmers with crystalline sparkle. Like last year's Built In Anger by Confutatis (Bernhard Pucher), Mount Age is a departure of sorts for Ai yet still a distinctive catalogue addition.

June 2006