Superpitcher: Today
Kompakt

Superpitcher generally opts for nuanced melodicism over slamming beats on his 72-minute mix CD Today but that doesn't mean a strong dance dimension is missing; if anything, the album offers a near-perfect marriage of melody, texture, and rhythm. Hear, for example, how marvelously the epic grandeur of Oliver Hacke's jacking “21:31” is anchored by its rubbery bass lines, or how an infectiously funky swing pierces the layers of textured static and clanks in Triola's dramatic “Leuchtturm (Wighnomy's Polarzipper Remix).” Today features other labels' artists (the gorgeous melancholy of “Spark” by Ghostly's Lawrence initiates the set hypnotically) though naturally the Kompakt roster is emphasized: an acidic minimal treatment of Michael Mayer's “Lovefood (Matias Aguayo Mix)” pushes its creepy vocal to the forefront (“Give me love / So that I can kill”) while hi-hats slice through bass gurgles in DJ Koze's electro-house sparkler “Let's Help Me.” Today flirts with conventional techno only once during Nathan Fake's “Dinamo” but even then distinguishes it with woozy pinprick burble and Fripp-styled guitar lines. The album reaches its peak during the final third when an elastic bass pulse kicks up an incredible storm in Wighnomy Bros.' “Wurz + Blosse” before bleeding into Lawrence 's rapturous overhaul of Superpitcher's own anthem “Happiness.” Though funky piano rhythms, grandiose strings, and MOR vocals in Sebastien Tellier's “La Ritournelle” end Today incongruously, the album's plenitude of magical moments more than compensates for this minor lapse.

July 2005