textura

Albums
Actress
Ellen Allien
The Alps
Aniline
Anodyne
Tommy Babin's Benzene
Maya Beiser
Pier Bucci
Budd & Wright
Celer
Ceremony
Richard Chartier
Deceptikon
Deepchord & Echospace
Marcel Dettmann
Dirac
Efdemin
GéNIA
Guillaume & C. Dumonts
Hammock
Helvacioglu & Boysen
Richard A Ingram
Inhabitants
Marsen Jules
Akira Kosemura
Manual
Dom Mino'
Teruyuki Nobuchika
Nono/ Wakabayashi
Olan Mill
Originalljudet
Fabio Orsi
M.Ostermeier
Rene Hell
Jeffrey Roden
J. Rogers
Roll The Dice
Secret Cities
Soundpool

Compilations / Mixes
Main Control Board
SEED X: Part I - III

EPs
Alternative Networks Vol. 2
Aural Diptych Series # 1
Aural Diptych Series # 2
Celer
Deerhoof vs OneOne
Filterwolf
Incite/
Ketem
Kogumaza
Yann Novak
Poratz
Quiroga
Repeat Orchestra
Sepalcure
Sub Loam
v4w.enko
The Zeitgeist EP

DVD
Stephen Vitiello

Repeat Orchestra: A Deeper Ground
A Touch Of Class

Though A Deeper Ground originally appeared in 2000, it sounds no less fresh ten years later. The four-track EP is the work of Stefan Schwander under the Repeat Orchestra name, but one could argue the better alias to issue it under would have been Schwander's other alias Rhythm Maker, given how lithe and supple the tracks' grooves are (for the record, he also records under the A Rocket In Dub and Antonelli Electr. names). In his Repeat Orchestra work, Schwander distills the finest elements of Detroit techno and Chicago house into a sleek hybrid that honours its roots while casting its gaze upon the future. The opening title cut rolls out half-a-minute of hyperactive percussive clatter and insistent bass pulsations before the groove proper swings into view, and what a luscious house groove it is. Here and in the other tracks, syncopated chords and string motifs pepper crisp soulful house grooves. Not a sound is out of place and there's not a moment of excess in Schwander's stripped-down constructions. “Virus” digs into its snappy house strut before a looped piano element enters the fray and the thumping groove broadens out, plunging deeper and getting funkier in the process as chords ricochet across the piano motif. In “Busy Signal,” a slinky hi-hat pattern and claps lay the foundation for a polyphonic criss-cross of piano and synth patterns that in under four minutes deftly synthesizes Detroit-styled futurism and classicism. Let's hope the EP's re-issue leads to the release of new Repeat Orchestra material. A deeper ground indeed.

June 2010