Article
Lucy

Albums
Alphabets Heaven
AREA C
Aidan Baker
Black Devil Disco Club
Cluster
Dakota Suite & Errante
Davis & Machinefabriek
Deaf Center
Fancy Mike
FM3
Forest Swords
Frivolous
Hakobune
Kyo Ichinose
Juv
Deniz Kurtel
Sven Laux
Lucy
Stephan Mathieu
Joel Mull
Near The Parenthesis
Netherworld
nunu
Fabio Orsi
Penalune
Pleq
port-royal
Rainbow Arabia
Todd Reynolds
Roedelius
Rosenqvist and Scott
Steffi
Sublamp
SubtractiveLAD
Tapage

Compilations
Back and 4th
Future Disco Volume 4
SMM: Context
Tasogare: Live in Tokyo

EPs
Aardvarck & Kubus
Corrugated Tunnel
Debilos
Djamel
Tolga Fidan
Flowers and Sea Creatures
Anne Garner
Mike Jedlicka / Cloudburst
Mo 2 Meaux-2
Proximity One: Remixes
Darren Rice
Sepalcure
Sharma + Krause
Josh T
Talvihorros
Francesco Tristano
Widesky
Dez Williams

Joel Mull: Sensory
Truesoul

Sensory represents the latest chapter in the aural autobiography still being written by Swedish techno producer Joel Mull. The man undoubtedly brings a wealth of experience to the new collection, his first since 2007's The Observer: his initial foray into dance music production (helped along by longtime friend and one-time classmate Adam Beyer) came about in 1993, and his DJ profile subsequently grew following gigs in his native Stockholm and a residency at Unit in Hamburg. Releases on his own Inside label, as well as on Drumcode, Code Red, Audiomatique, Cocoon, Music Man, and Harthouse, among others, have solidified the reputation he's built up over a nearly two-decade run. Though Sensory's primary focus is techno, it also shows Mull's capable handling of multiple other styles too, including ambient and dub.

The opener “Nagoya Bolero” (punctuated near its end by the alarm-like ring of a Tokyo Bullet Train door closing and iPhone-recorded ambient sounds of people talking) acts as an intro in that calm-before-the-storm kind of way, with it largely spinning its wheels for three minutes as it hints at the journey ahead. Compared to the opening track, “Smoke Room” provides a greater degree of forward drive, though it opts more for jaunty skip than propulsive drive. Nevertheless, there's no disputing the high level of craft that Mull brings to the track and its subtle dub-techno inflections, just as he does to the album in general. The album's got no shortage of hard-charging dance cuts, including the steamy club banger “Keep On” and the tech-house stomper “Holographic,” whose tribal vibe is given a trippy twist with the inclusion of Mull's own voice manipulated to distorted effect with Ableton. The material impresses when it swings with serious purpose and forward drive, cases in point “Danny Boy” (inspired by Danny Tenaglia) and the languid, synth-enhanced jam “Novelty Theory.” The penultimate “Arriving” adds a refreshingly unexpected wrinkle to the album when it sprinkles electric piano and synth textures over a raw dub groove, and the title track does much the same in capping the disc with a beatless ambient setting.

Sensory's standout is clearly “Sunday2Sunday” (Mull's own favourite too, interestingly enough), not only because it integrates all of Mull's strengths into a single piece but also for its irresistible “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday” vocal sample and beat thrust. The track is buoyed when a glorious bass-driven pulse surfaces three minutes in, and the stabs and flares that pepper the tune's clockwork groove and vocal mantra add to the track's appeal. What elevates “Sunday2Sunday” over most of the album's other tracks is the additional emphasis it brings to melody and compositional development; aspiring to be more than just a powerful rhythm workout, the track moves through various episodes and dramatically ebbds and flows as it does so.

Though, generally speaking, the album's tracks are designed to be long-form club throwdowns, the seventy-five-minute running time ends up feeling like a bit too much of a good thing, which suggests that a minute or two could have been shaved off of the tracks without any great loss (“Attractor” and “Novelty Theory” stand out as candidates, given their near-nine-minute durations) or that perhaps nine tracks instead of eleven might have been the better total.

March 2011