Articles
Christopher Tignor
Spotlight 13

Albums
Advanced Dreams
Federico Albanese
Matthew Barlow
Bruno Bavota
Black Unicorn
Bolder
Borghi & Teager
Carla Bozulich
Chris Campbell
Colo
Deadbeat / Paul St Hilaire
Detroit Swindle
Donato Dozzy & Nuel
Yair Etziony
Lewis Fautzi
Hammock
Mark Harris
Hideyuki Hashimoto
Kodomo
Listening Mirror
Lost Trail
Lucy
Machine Code
Yann Novak
Opitope
Origamibiro
Pinkcourtesyphone
Michael Robinson
Mariano Rodriguez
Dana Ruh
Janek Schaefer
Sketches for Albinos
Jakob Skøtt
Talk West
Christopher Tignor
Wen
Scott Worthington

Compilations / Mixes
Generation Hyper
Sharam Jey

EPs / Singles
Children of the Stones
Dexima
Dexta & Hyroglifics
dock 1
Dream Weapons
Dr.Res
FFM Vol. 2 EP
Glory Club
Nightstalker EP

Dream Weapons: Pathways EP
Holger

Commenting on the Pathways material Aggelos Baltas (aka Dream Weapons and Fantastikoi Hxoi) submitted to Holger, Steffen Bennemann said that he was “instantly captured by the driving, trippy kraut techno songs, which show homage to the psychedelic sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s while holding their own in the here and now.” That's a pretty on-point description of the “krautrock-gone-techno magic” you can expect to hear on the twenty-six-minute EP (available in twelve-inch and digital formats).

It's also a beautifully sequenced set that conveys more the impression of a mini-album than EP, especially when it includes a one-minute “Intro” as a scene-setter before the big guns come out. Once that synth-heavy soundscape's over, the music locks into kinetic gear with the title cut, an alluring, sequencer-driven krautrock-techno jam that sparkles and pulsates with a utopian fervour that's like the Jekyll to the Hyde of the darkly dystopic intro. If anything, the subsequent track “Infinite” kicks out the jams with even more conviction, especially when its krautrock groove is powered by heavy-hitting drumming and it burns with such exuberant fire.

The B-side's “Moonland” plunges the listener into a trippier electronic realm where an army of gleaming synthesizers incessantly burble in tandem with tribal-inflected techno swing. “The Vampire” resurrects the bruising drum groove from “Infinite” though this time soaks it in Transylvanian oil, with the result eight minutes of howling-at-the-moon krautrock-techno you can really sink your teeth into. To sum up, Bennemann also characterized the material Baltas sent to Holger as “(e)xactly our cup of tea,” and that's pretty much how we feel about it, too.

March 2014