Artist: Thomas Fehlmann
Album: Visions Of Blah
Released: 2002
Label: Kompakt (KOMPAKT CD 20)
Genre: Electronic, Minimal, Tech House, Ambient
Format: eac-wv-cue&log.tagged.within

Description:
Kompakt proceed in their current state of rude good health with the latest work from Thomas Fehlmann. Ever since his formative work as Sun Electric, Berliner Fehlmann has been in the driving seat, moving and shaping, sometimes boldly and recently in a more reflective phase. His collaboration with Kompakt is highly appropriate, bringing elements of the Berlin sound to an increasingly well defined Cologne scene. The result : an ambitious, beautifully conceived album, spanning a submerged dubwise sensibility, shuffling bounced micro-house and a whole ocean of melodic sounds, just check the magnificent "Boheme Rouge" for evidence of the considered depth of this music. The eleven track cd stretches to include the recent twelve of the title track and bonus cuts. A tune like "Superbock" with its unassailable commitment to party shows exactly how far things have progressed, the processed dubs of "Making It Whistle" and "Rainbow over Stadtautobahn" lend a rosy glow to exactly what is possible. This label is pushing the envelope and Fehlmann is one of the major players in this always bright, ever evolving scene.

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As much as Fehlmann's time-spanning reputation precedes him - as an original post-punker who has collaborated with several Detroit techno luminaries and the Orb - Visions of Blah still comes as a dazzling surprise. Compiling Fehlmann's pair of 2002 12" releases for Kompakt and adding an additional five productions, the album flitters to and fro with slight stylistic shifts, dividing time between ambient and dancefloor material. The hypnotic effects of the opening three tracks - "Streets of Blah," "Superbock," and "Rotenfaden" - are all but overwhelming with swinging, quasi-skanking rhythm patterns and basslines that seem simultaneously viscous and transient, like dubbed-up recastings of the Modernist's prickly fissures. "Du Fehlst Mir" follows the opening trio with a drastic transfer into blissful ambient techno - those glistening flourishes! - and ranks with the best of Kompakt's Pop Ambient series. The gradual descent back into the beat-heavy begins with "Rainbow Over Stadtautobahn," a track that remains atmospheric but resembles a spacy take on frictional shuffle-tech with rocking effects (as in the movement of a chair, not a scorching guitar riff) and percussion that ricochets from left to right and right to left. The truly astonishing point is that the album's best treats don't arrive until after that. "Making It Whistle" utilizes a similar dub-techno template as the opening three, but adds further dimensions with livelier tweaks and reverberations. Then there's the clanking chug of "Seerosengiessen," the metallic eroticism of "Gratis" (this could pass as a skanking remix of Maurizio's "M4"), and the beatless, vaporous blasts of "Decke." This doesn't merely qualify as one of Kompakt's best single-artist albums; it is the label's best single-artist album. Not bad for a producer who has nothing to prove.

Tracklist:
01. Streets of Blah
02. Superbock
03. Rotenfaden
04. Du Fehlst Mir
05. Rainbow Over Stadtautobahn
06. Making It Whistle (Album Mix)
07. Seerosengiessen
08. Gratis
09. Decke
10. Luftikus
11. Boheme Rouge

Thomas.Fehlmann.-.Visions.Of.Blah.(eac-wv-cue&log.tagged.within)-2002.wv 5 clicks