Articles
2009 Top 10s and 20s
King Midas Sound
Starke

Albums
36
Aardvarck
Matias Aguayo
Anaphoria
Anduin
Arbol + Fibla
Aufgang
Beneva vs. Clark Nova
Black to Comm
Bvdub
Cornstar
Dinky
Enola
Fieldhead
FOURM / Shinkei / Turra
Billy Gomberg
The Green Kingdom
Chihei Hatakeyama
Ian Hawgood
Marek Hemmann
Khate
King Midas Sound
Marcel Knopf
Robot Koch
Lambent
Shinobu Nemoto
Olekranon
Laurent Perrier
Piano Magic
Porzellan
Pylône
Ryonkt
Shadyzane
Slow
Small Color
Solomun
The Sound of Lucrecia
Stray Ghost
The Use of Ashes
Sylvie Walder

Compilations / Mixes
Sebo K
Will Saul
Tama Sumo
VOLTT Amsterdam Vol. 1

EPs
Blindhæð
Roberto Bosco
Franco Cangelli
Dieb
dub KULT
Abe Duque/Blake Baxter
Gemmy
Christopher Hobbs
Duncan Ó Ceallaigh
Christopher Roberts
The Sight Below
Two Fourteen
Van Der Papen
Andy Vaz
Vetrix
Eddie Zarook

DVD
Optofonica

Dinky: Anemik
Wagon Repair

Though Alejandra Iglesias aka Dinky now calls Berlin home, her fourth album Anemik unmistakably reflects her Chilean roots. Recorded using analog equipment, acoustic instruments, and vocal elements, the collection oozes a sweat-soaked animation one associates with her Santiago de Chile origins. Iglesias's back-story includes an eclectic listening appetite of Depeche Mode, Eno, Plastikman, Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, Jeff Mills, Ricardo Villalobos, Dandy Jack, and Luciano, and a late-‘90s move from Santiago to Manhattan to join the Martha Graham School of Contemporary dance that in turn provided a gateway into the NY Club scene, subsequent introduction to American house and Detroit techno, and eventual DJing and recording.

Setting the scene, “Childish” grows into a feverish cocktail of percussive combustion and flickering electronic patterns. In “Westoid Feat Updates,” a Miles-ian muted trumpet augments a jaunty techno-funk groove and vocals by Dinky and guest Jorge Gonzales. The title track's a more restless and effervescent affair, with machine beats, robotic propulsion, synth smears, and vocal chants fighting for position over a stabilizing 4/4 kick drum pulse. Powered by a fluid house groove and willowy atmosphere, “Ceramik” exudes the feverish delirium of a Chilean club jam, while “Skyped” offers a percolating discharge of entranced voices and metallic percussion accents. In the longest track, “Epilepsia,” hyperactive arpeggiated squiggles sparkle and gleam while a Latinized microhouse groove burbles and sputters. In some cases she pushes the experimental envelope, as shown by the blend of aquatic vocal effects and Latin-tinged percussion patterns that compose “Glacial.” With its murmured vocals and mechano beats, the even-more-curious “Fadik” sounds like Mazzy Starr put through an Einstürzende Neubauten grinder. Prodded by a bass line borrowed from Led Zeppelin's “Dazed and Confused,” “Rain Fallic” scatters pebbles of breathy vocals and bleeding guitar lines in a mid-tempo exercise some listeners would liken to trip-hop.

December 2009