Kompakt: Search und Destroy

so yes, total 3 total 3, yadda yadda. totals 1 & 2 are also grate. and pop ambient 2001. but andy's right, you'll want em all.

what about tangentially related labels...perlon? klang electronik? playhouse?

As far as Reinhard's considered, he released some stuff through Profan; I've heard a stray track or two, but Profan's releases tend to be too abrasive for me. However, Reinhard just released a disc on Kompakt that falls in line a little more with the accessible nature of that label.

It's terribly difficult to keep all of these Cologne/Berlin figures straight. I've come to the conclusion that you need at least six pseudonyms prior to releasing your first 12".

Kompakt's compilations tend to throw some previously released 12" material together with unreleased. Definitely not complete. I don't own any of the singles -- if I started, I wouldn't stop. Most of what I've heard through the label's website is on par with what they've put on disc, if not better. Bastards.

Is Kompakt that popular? If so, that's GRATE. I know their profile has been increased somewhat in the last year, but I didn't realize they were doing so well. A decent-sized stir is all I've been aware of.

hearing minimal techy-house stuff play in the indie store(s) when i go = GRATE. (at least it's not IDM twaddle.)

I wish Kompakt had distribution in the US, similar to how Force Inc and all its offshoots gets distributed through EFA. More ears need to hear their output.

Not to be a smart ass, but I thought I was really behind the times when I bought the represses for the first 6-7 records in early 99. Kompakt is a shop in Cologne that used to be called Delerium. The whole Cologne Minimal Acid scene has been going since the early 90's. In the last four years or so it has mutated into that whole minimal art-house thing. If you want to know what these guys were doing years ago, check out the Acid-Resistant comps.

I would highly recomend Las Vegas by Burger Ink, it is a good listening album. Check out Jorg Burger material as Bionaut. The Gas records are very good as well, Konigsforst, Pop, Zauberberg, I believe they were all out on Mille Plateaux. The Pop Ambient 2001 comp it good stuff, and according to their mailing list the Pop Ambient 2002 comp should be out in the near future. Check out the Ulf Lohmann CD as well, good stuff. As for most of their output, they are dance records, it is tough to really say anything about them. They are great minimal house records, and just about everything I have heard has been good. If you can mix them, you should get as many as you can get your hands on.

If you are really into this minimal cologne stuff, you should also look into Klang Elektronik records. Anything by Roman Flugel, Peter F. Spiess, or Farben. Also look into other microhouse lables like Playhouse, Ladomat and Perlon. Good stuff, but also very dj oriented. We used to play the hell out of all these german lables when I used to do Current in Detroit a couple years ago.

I do not know if they are the new CR. I think Kompakt is a very large piece of a whole greater german scene. Whereas CR came out of the ashes of Basic Channel and they are one of the most authentic lables when it comes to the minimal dub sound. Minimal Dub seems very centered in Berlin to me, everything in the Hardwax family of lables. I look at CR as being to Berlin Dub what Transmat is to Detroit Techno. There might be other lables and producers across the planet mimicing that sound, but they are the true creators and arbiters of that sound. I do not think Kompakt is the center of micro-house or what ever you would like to cal it.

That is my opinion, feel free to disregard portions of it as you see fit.

I love the way that when flipping through the tracks on those comps you might hear a Moroder-style chugathon, and then what sounds like early Madonna remixed by Todd Edwards, and then a Green Velvet-style hard-tech track with deadpan vocals, and then a mournful guitar-laden quasi-balearic number, and then beatless ambience etc. etc.

And yeah, Total 3 is definitely the place to start - the other Total comps. are of a similar quality but are less instantly inviting.

I like Schaben and Voss - 'Fein Raus', Michael Mayer - Pensum and Joachim Speith - 'You don't fool me' The only Burger/Ink track I really know by title = 'Avalon' which is also great. Not on Kompakt but on Profan is my favorite track of this 'circle': Reinhard Voigt's smashing 'Oktoberfest #1'.

As for the CR comparison, I was thinking more in terms of "being the leading label in minimal techno". I have a suspicion that the releases on Ital have a more direct musical link with Chain Reaction.

Various - Pop Ambient 2002 - Kompakt

Cologne’s cognoscenti deliver once again, their second compilation of the warm, flowing currents alive within new ambience, 2002 style. Nine tracks in all, seven exclusives from Wolfgang Voigt as All and Tal plus gems from Ulf Lohmann, Marcus Guentner, Triola, Tomlab’s Novisad and Dettinger. Its highly appropriate that the compilation starts and ends with Mr Voigt, his awesome body of work as Gas represents the starting point for much of this genre and his two contributions here are quiet, orchestrated masterpieces of tender restraint. Jawdropping. Licensed in from his beautiful Mille Plateaux album, Donnacha Costello’s Dry Retch, sounding like the most tranquil moments of Ryuchi Sakamoto, only more developed. And from dreary old Manchester, the pocket of warmth that is www.jz-arkh.co.uk, which long time subscibers to this list may fondly remember on a dinky little grey seven inch, still sounding better than ever. Hugely consistent and highly recommended.

2. The last colour scheme I expected was grey and orange, but I think I like it.

3. Dunno the tracklisting, but the included artists are:

Autobianchi (sp?), Freiland, Jurgen Paape, Kaito, Superpitcher, Jonas Bering, M. Mayer, Justus Koehncke, Thomas Fehlmann, Voight & Voight, Schaeben & Voss, Closer Musik.

Nice to see Kaito finally get a look in on a Total comp - his stuff is great, actually making an impossibly convincing argument for a Jam & Spoon revival.

They've taken a bit of a dip lately, haven't they?

Praise die Gotter!! I was hoping the master of high-brow trance was going to make an appearance.

Dip, I dunno, the Justus Koehncke and Closer Musik albums are rather addictive.

If there's a frustration with Kompakt, it would be that there's been no artist who has put out an album that captures the best of their sound the way the Total comps do. This year's two artist albums have both represented tangents - Closer Musik too dark and minimal techno-ish (albeit still a great album), and what I've heard of Justus Koehncke too shiny and cheerful (though damned addictive). Where are the albums by M. Mayer, Superpitcher, The Modernist, Sascha Funke and Jurgen Paape (to name but a few)?

Also, based on "Gratis" and "Making It Whistle" - both impossibly stunning - I'd love to hear Thomas Fehlmann do a full Kompakt album.

Rather, not completely -- hence the dip. Each of those albums and the past several 12"s have had their great moments, but I don't think they've been up to the standard of what has preceded them.

Just with M. Mayer and Superpitcher, you have two producers who rarely repeat themselves on a track-by-track basis. The fact that neither of them have released more material is pretty frustrating. And where has Dettinger run off?

Anyone who actually does buy the EP should then upload it somewhere asap as I only have the 3 minute mp3 samples from here.

(No one is more tech-house than Theo Parrish.)

murcof played live here in glasgow last month (using the now ubiquitous abelton live). imagine farben jamming with arvo part and yr halfway there. gorgeous.

i want more superpitcher and i want it now!

13 Track CD, featuring chartbound sounds from KAITO, with his debut album imminent, THOMAS FEHLMANN, CLOSER MUSIK, JONAS BERING and VOIGT & VOIGT. As with the vinyl edition, all exclusive and unreleased tracks from AUTOBIANCHI[aka JORG BURGER], FREILAND[aka WOLFGANG VOIGT], MICHAEL MAYER, SUPERPITCHER, JUSTUS KOHNCKE, REINHARD VOIGT, JURGEN PAAPE and SCHAEBEN & VOSS. Further pleasures to the vinyl edition as four of the biggest cuts this year make for a full impact compact disc for parties and picnics all summer long. A vibesing beginning from Jorg Burger sets underway possibly the best Kompakt collection thus far. As he pitches up the chorus, the confidence of the Cologne crew is blatant: they know what to do, they do it often. Herr Voigt's Freiland project is trademarked Kompakt, a deadly off kilter, looping riddim, loose and trim in shuffle time. During Jurgen Paape's "Mit Dir" a beautiful voice sings "from far away there comes music", it's a precious moment, made all the more affecting by the stripped rhythm and the romantic delays topping it. Almost Detroit, when the fill ins occur, and yet Cologne has become as big a byword on its own terms in receent months. On the second piece of vinyl, the big guns are wheeled out for some bravura stuff. Fehlmann's contribution is typically amazing, Michael Mayer's upstepping accents barely prepares us for the awesome showdown. Easily the equal of his own immense and recent "Love is Stronger Than Pride" [back in stock folks] and that's saying something. Justus Kohncke's tune could easily be the part two to "2 After 909", as we all know by now probably THE underground deejay record of the year so far. The rhythm supplies consistency, while Justus picks up a guitar, for an exquisite solo moment, which will charm as much as it perhaps surprises at first. Saving the best til last, Superpitcher drop the bomb, with a super choice of cover version. Eno's "Baby's On Fire" is just so so so good, anyway, but the deadpan delicious delivery, the groove, the song, the moment. Quite appropriate, more than they may suspect even - party on dudes, you rock our world. A must have collection.

Source: BOOMKAT

Initial thought: pretty solid throughout. The M. Mayer, Autobianchi, and Jurgen Paape tracks are vocal numbers of varying brilliance. M. Mayer's is one of his best yet. Superpitcher's Eno cover is pretty straightforward -- bouncy synth pop, as you might expect.

http://www.kompakt-net.de/temp/df2e4ed4669309789df2b298786e68c2120040524210410.gif

very lambent, very ambient, wind rising over trees. quite nice. then about three and a half minutes in the foghorns sound in the distance and a creeping and very submerged steppers beat semi-surface for about 30 seconds before receding beneath the wind-over-trees.

Andy - is the foldout you mention in the liner notes to Kompakt 100?

The Pop Ambient series has nothing to do with drone music. It is strikingly beautiful, though -- and, granted, it can be directionless, but since when has this been a problem for instrumental, beatless electronic music?

Indeed

I hope amoeba decides to carry it down here.

that sounds amazing!!

toby otm about the new kaito 12 btw. it's serviceable but pretty wallpapery by kompakt standards.

http://phs.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003051.html

The only thing missing from the Timecode video is a drunken Stellan Skarsgård. (Not that I've seen it to begin with.)

Thank you, good sir! I'll do it with some pain in my heart since this has been far the most popular thread I have started on ILM. :)