Back again! This time with a...massive review. Cocoon Compilation F. Let's get to it.
Every year, techno label Cocoon Recordings releases a Compilation that features twelve new tracks for the summer season from a variety of famed and unknown producers. F was 2006, so let's get to it. All 12. Let's go.
Pier Bucci - Danielle's Dream (miscredited here as Junk) = Formulaic, driving tech house with an eye for minimalism. It pops, drips, oozes robotic structure and sounds very…Cocoon. Dark, bubbly, yet a playful aura pervades, and the track has undeniable bounce to it. Drunken, spastic in places, but propels you headlong into Cocoon's latest summer compilation.
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Guido Schneider - Animism = Cocoon and Poker Flat producer Guido Schneider turns up with a pliable, tribal minimal tech house cut that features a synth line that sounds like the sound of a metal sheet being bent to and fro before being pitched up, and then down…and then with some flange and reverb thrown on. It's an eerie effect, to be sure, but it just…doesn't completely work. The track has a great vibe without it, rolling, rollicking tech house with an emphasis on the 'roll'. The pattering toms build the tribal feel, and halfway through, the track almost transforms, shot headlong into a warped, metallic jungle with all manner of mechanized flora and fauna throughout. Organic meets robotic here, and it turns out to be a pretty good track. Hats off to a producer who doesn't always have the best productions, to be fair.
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Adam Proll - Fetch My Blades = An early highlight and one of my favorite tracks off this particular compilation. The bassline is pure genius; deep and subby beyond belief, it chugs along like an analog torpedo, with a raw, blistering audacity that threatens to tear the track in two. One of my favorite basslines ever, I might argue. Match that with fairly held-back drums, liberal use of clipped vocals, an 8-bit line that's pure magic, and metallic little plinks and clinks that round out the drum production. This is another tech house monster, but more in-your-face than the other tracks so far. Doesn't overstay it's welcome either. Highly recommend this one from a definite up-and-comer. oh, by the way, the breakdown is pure white noise bliss.
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Johannes Heil - One = Not to be confused with Swedish House Mafia's simplistic masterpiece, this Johannes Heil cut is a minimal mini-'beast', if you coiled even call it that, with an electro-influenced synth riff that's, well, bad. Maybe it's the fact that it is coming after 'Fetch My Blades', but the riff is neither memorable nor the best produced bit of work on here. The oddest sound effects are used too, with eerie, wavering howls and ghostly noises coming and going like an late-evening July breeze. The riff is techno, the drums are tech house, and the sound effects are dub techno. This track tries to do different things behind a weak riff. It's a death sentence in my book. Unimpressive, as dancefloor-driven as it is, and an unfortunate misstep for the compilation.
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2000 And One - Tropical Melons = Turn your flanger on max. This is a driving, warped tech house cut from '100% Pure' boys 2000 And One. Unfortunately, this cut also suffers from the last track's problem: where's the memorable element? The synth riff twists, bends, and partakes all manner of aural madness, but usually this effect is best employed when the riff is, at the very least, catchy! (See Radio Slave's remix of Josh Wink's "Stay Out All Night") That being said, skip this one. Not worth your time, maybe beyond one listen. Another misstep on a compilation that needs to fast redeem itself.
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Gregor Tresher - Full Range Madness = Great Stuff regular Gregor Tresher blows right out of the gate with an interesting melody that seems to have one foot in the Orient with the other in 1980s Euro-pop. The bassline is raw like freshly cut beef, and the electro-tinged synth line, surprisingly…works. The tempo is fast enough to make this a halfway-decent track. However, Tresher seems to get ahead of himself, and tries to lay on too many elements and too many 'musical' aspects. This is techno for God's sakes! The melody, however interesting, is not actually that memorable, and besides that super-acidic bassline, this track has little else to offer. But it's headed in the right direction! There's even a little medieval Europe in this bad boy. Wow. Speechless.
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Andreas Kauffelt - Every Morning = This is a Kompakt-sounding cut from German producer Andreas Kauffelt. It suffers from the problems of the latter: interesting melodic element that's…not memorable or catchy. This affair is much spacier, lucid, almost, but firmly grounded in techno, as the rhythm and drums will attest. The breakdown beefs up the low-end, and goes 8-bit blip on us without doing anything really special or extraordinary. Another slab of mediocre vinyl. Shucks.
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Mathew Jonson - Sub-Atomic = Finally. The lull has been broken. From the outset, 'Wagon Repair' regular and one-third of Cobblestone Jazz's Mathew Jonson turns in a deep, psychotic tech house cut with a snaking melody that is ACTUALLY memorable. The bassline is simplistic and fits the mold of this cut well. THe instruments used, i.e. the warped, freakish synth and the oscillating background pads, they work magic. This is ambient tech house to a tee, an excellent track with a hint of Middle-Eastern magic to it. Recommended much.
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Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber - Sea of Sand = The B-side is just as amazing. Go figure. Guy Gerber and Shlomi Aber team up to deliver an ambient techno cut unlike any other. As deep and fluid as it is sharp and watertight in its production, Gerber and Aber go above and beyond with popping bubbles, whooshes of water, and a shimmering, ethereal synth riff that SOUNDS like techno underwater. Dreamy, lucid, with a main riff that literally sounds like bubbles, this groove breaks the fall from grace of this compilation in one fell swoop. Highly recommended, this is a track with no equal. Ambient techno at its peak.
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Serafin - Liquid Daydream = Serafin turns up on the A-side of the next vinyl record to drop 'Liquid Daydream', a creepy, surreal ambient cut that sounds oddly like…'Sea of Sand'. The dose of atmospheric ooze injects more flavor this time around, but half the time, there's no melodic element. Which you kind of need, even in a techno cut. When it IS present, it's applied well, drifting in and out slyly and warily. A decaying bell sound is brought in, as warped and dissonant as the rest of the elements it surrounds. This is certainly similar to 'Sea' but it's still different; a perky horn riff, more atmosphere, and much less drum production steer this one away form the dancefloor…which is counter-intuitive. Odd. A good track, but it cannot hold a candle to 'Sea' in any manner.
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David K - Dissonance = The final vinyl record begins with a number from Cocoon's own David K. A floating, paper-thin pad drifts lazily under a great intro drum pattern, before a fat, beefy bassline rolls in to shake things up. The problem here is, nothing is down with the track, only after 3 minutes does a eerie, simplistic string section swell and then…fade. What? This track is called 'Dissonance', but…there is none. There are not even enough elements to create it! An odd track to say the least. Ambient without atmosphere, but a solid drum pattern that goes nowhere, and a squelching, acidic main riff that does nothing at all really. Disappointing.
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Alex Smoke - If You Mean It = Vakant regular Alex Smoke turns up for the final track, a wheezing, lazy minimal cut that would be right at home on Vakant. But the addition of a flavorful guitar riff makes this one a little interesting. This track gains a bit of momentum, and adds a little bounce and vibe. The noise is sparse, but the musicality, lush. The guitar riff is the anchor, before Smoke goes glitch and cuts up the background into a sputtering, epileptic beast of a track that builds, well, nothing really. The breakdown is light minimal flare, and this is a huge sputter for the last track on a Cocoon Compilation. Light, minimal tribal-esque, almost, that goes nowhere with some interesting elements. Only at the end does a gliding, deep pad begin to make something interesting out of nothing, but it's too late by then. An even bigger disappointment.
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Save for a few tracks, Cocoon Compilation F tries depth with a minimal flare, but lacks the memorable riffs to pull off much. Much disappointment will be found here, save for three great tracks from Adam Proll, Mathew Jonson, and Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber. Check back soon for my review of Cocoon Compilation G!
-NL
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