Taking Sides: Hypercity vs. Immer

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Andrew Weatherall's ForceTracks mix vs. Michael Mayer's Kompakt (more or less?) mix. Seems like one of these is probably the ultimate microhouse mix CD (though if you have another idea toss it in the ring).

Which does more for you?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 7 March 2003 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked Hypercity. But as with all microhouse, I really like it...but I'm not sure I love it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 7 March 2003 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Are we over this?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 7 March 2003 21:16 (twenty-three years ago)

immer takes it, every time. broader range, deeper valleys, higher peaks, odder juxtapositions, more beautiful. hypercity might be more banging and more fluidly mixed, but i listen to it less.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 7 March 2003 21:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry Mark -- it's almost Friday evening and I'm more likely to listen to these records these days than type about them.

I agree with Jess. Plus, you have to consider that Hypercity's too specialist to represent a space so vast.

― Andy K (Andy K), Friday, 7 March 2003 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Immer Immer Immer Immer Immer.

Hypercity is great but can it seriously contend with one of the greatest examples of a dance mix-cd ever ever ever?

I would say that Hypercity could win a gong for cleverest choice of first song - the urgent pulse of "Human Patterns" works an absolute treat.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 10 March 2003 06:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Immer a bit more, but I think Triple R's Friends blows both (and every microhouse CD I've heard except Vocalcity) out of the fucking water without even trying.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 10 March 2003 06:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Hypercity starts and ends awesomely but my mind starts to wander away somewhere in the middle, so no contest. IMMER

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Monday, 10 March 2003 11:38 (twenty-three years ago)

[btw Tim did you get my email?]

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Monday, 10 March 2003 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"Immer" is probably my favourite mix ever. "Hypercity" and 'Friends" also great, but, to paraphrase Jess (from another thread), there is more God in Mayer's record (I mean God as a hunger for spiritual experience, therefore "Immer" fits well in aesthetical / philosophical German tradition) (OTM, OTM !!!, I know). Not that I need spiritual aura from a "dance" record (I love eth by So Solid's, you know)(and it's not that easy to dance to'Immer", but no "all heart, no hips" formula either), but in this case I love this loftiness. And writing this bollocks I also realised that "Immer", unlike "Hypercity" still confuses me, and maybe that's why I listen to it again and again.

― luke (luke), Monday, 10 March 2003 12:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Immmer because it's just as specialist, but manages to be more cerebral and it just grooves harder. That said, the last few road trips I've taken, I've had Hypercity to keep me company which was quite perfect. Also Immer because it helps explain my microhouse/techhouse/whatever fixation to my friends who would otherwise not get it...A friend of mine has called Immer psychedelic house or dolphin house, quite apt. I like Friends because it's a really unique take on the dj mix - it's both cliched and non-cliched; anything that can invoke this kind of paradox has a chance at greatness in my book. :)

ps. Hi, I'm new here. I've posted a few times before...

― disco stu (disco stu), Monday, 10 March 2003 18:38 (twenty-three years ago)

A warm welcome to Disco Stu.

What I meant by "Hypercity's too specialist": All the tracks are from the same label -- a label that (to that point, at least) had several common threads running through its releases.

― Andy K (Andy K), Monday, 10 March 2003 18:48 (twenty-three years ago)

thanks Andy...I agree with that definition of specialist and your use of it especially wrt that period of Force Tracks. It makes Immer that much more interesting because Hypercity has the 'advantage' whereas Immer just sounds that cohesive.

FT has been all over the place lately...

― disco stu (disco stu), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:10 (twenty-three years ago)

To strip away the magic a bit, Immer's secret may be its surprising level of investment in shuffletech throughout its middle section, which gives it a level of eerie unworldliness which (due perhaps to a comparative lack of critical focus on shuffletech vis a vis "glitch-house") is much harder to put into words. The best shuffletech creates a sense of uneasy fluidity; even more than 2-step, its that sense of forward-falling, each bar pulling you down into the next, which leaves it sounding radically open, unstable, and yet its multi-layered adherence to house principles also offers a sort of delicious claustrophobia.

Everyone who loves Immer should invest in that Thomas Fehlmann album BTW.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Tim, could you elaborate a bit on 'shuffletech' (i.e. what is it - I've never heard the term)?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:07 (twenty-three years ago)

All the tracks in the middle like "Gratis" and "Psychometry" which, although possessing a 4/4 beat, sound off-kilter and syncopated because the snares, hi-hats, basslines and melodic riffs are all programmed at odds with it (usually the overall groove-riff starts just before or just after the first kick). The effect of this is to make the groove seem to rock from side to side in a vaguely seasick fashion - hence "shuffle". See also Frieland's "Freiland" on Total 4.

The worst examples of shuffletech really do sound seasick and ultimately not very pleasant. The best stuff (particularly anything by Thomas Fehlmann, who I think has nailed the style more completely than anyone else on tracks like "Gratis", "Superbock" and "Streets of Blah") is utterly compelling. At the moment "Superbock" is probably my favourite tune - it starts of as "conventional" Kompakt tech-house, and then cleverly switches into shuffle, with the result that it sounds like you're listening to the original groove from the vantage-point of a far-underwater city.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Not nearly as into the Fehlmann as others are, in large part because it really trails off at the end, the last three-four cuts very blah w/o much vision. The good stuff is ace, though

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually end up liking Hypercity's tunnel vision more. I would rather hear Immer on the radio or a club, but Hypercity is almost like icy trance in its micro-mania. I can listen to Hypercity much more often and I remember someone mentioning its replay value to commuters, and thought to myself: exactly.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 01:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks, Tim. Will try to check the Fehlmann.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 04:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I posted this thread after I'd only had Immer a week, and I'd barely heard it. After playing it a number of times thru since, I realize just how different these records are, & that maybe this comparison isn't as interesting as I'd thought. The last third of Immeris what makes it so special, how it moves through all those vastly different moods.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 04:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Matos, those are ambient/isolationist tracks though yeah? Except for "Du Fenlst Mir" (a heavenly possible-homage to that first track on Selected Ambient Works)and maybe "Luftikus" I don't think any of those are nearly as good as his shuffletech tracks, which he should really stick to.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 04:32 (twenty-three years ago)

you are correct, Tim, he should stick to shuffletech (great neologism!)

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 07:41 (twenty-three years ago)

It ain't mine unfortunately! Been around since at least 2000 (hence Kompakt's Shaffleblah-blah comp.)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 08:11 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Listened to Hypercity again today. It sounds very contemporary! More so than it probably would have 2-3 years ago I imagine.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 17 August 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

Bumping this because I've been listening to Hypercity alot recently. Not as good as Immer, no. But not many mixes are.

What was the general consensus on Immer 3?

― Andy Cole (Dwight Yorke), Wednesday, 8 September 2010 08:25 (fifteen years ago)

three years pass...

I ripped Hypercity recently and I've been spinning it again, first time in a few years, still enjoy it. I have much nicer headphones than I did when this came out, and I can tell now (unless my ears deceive me) that he mixed this from vinyl. Is that true? Swear to god I'm hearing just the slightest bit of surface noise, which I never noticed before.

― Mark, Thursday, 9 January 2014 03:14 (twelve years ago)

Seems likely. Wevs did his Masterpiece mix live, although he no longer uses vinyl.

― JLB Credit (Jack BS), Thursday, 9 January 2014 12:12 (twelve years ago)

Could never get into Hypercity...sound palette was too homogenous for me. Ricky Villa's Love Family Trax mix was always my go to for this kind of thing.

― millmeister, Thursday, 9 January 2014 12:40 (twelve years ago)

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