Berlin’s Festplatten are back with a remix 12 inch for Andi Teichmann’s Fades CD, which doubles as one of the few exercises in recent memory that makes clinical sterility sound enticing. While none of the these three remixes [plus a skip-worthy 20 second collage called “Loops”] are club material, there is something a bit jarring and claustrophobic about layering mellifluous Joe Pernice-styled vocals over such prickly, quantized, and whitewashed productions. With ultra-dry toms and chiseled minimal acid-lines, Hannes Teichmann’s remix of “They Don’t Care” is like an anemic version of Trentemoller, while Ukraine’s Dubmastas turn in a grim, mostly beatless mix that shows off only a few ugly glitches in its freshly shined exterior. When the disjointed kick drum comes in during the latter, it could pass as an unlikely combination of The Notwist jamming with the dubstep of Burial. Ada comes up with the biggest winner here, nailing the trademark Festplatten sound of synthesized electric guitar (used so well on practically every record by Gebr. Teichmann) while adding just the slightest bit of her own squelchy basslines and lush organ pads. Everything here might be carved a bit too lucid and upfront to really sink your teeth into, but just like excessive plastic surgery and botox, it still demands a curious kind of rubbernecking attention.

Festplatten / FEST 33
[Listen]
[Michael F. Gill]

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to which indie rock bands Andi Teichmann was listening to while composing his debut album? Fades is a rather pleasant outing from Teichmann and it’s also an attempt to bridge the gap between indie rock and techno. Like a lot of producers making techno today, Teichmann started his career in a punk band as a teenager. “They Don’t Care” is the first song on the record to make the combination explicit, pitting a wildly oscillating bass line against an acoustic guitar and vocals. But while the two songs that sound like a house Death Cab end up working nicely, it’s the songs that combine the compositional ideas behind rock without resorting to the use of the instruments that work the best: “Alias,” “Nicoff,” and “Aether” all shine on an album filled with moderate highlights, but nothing exceptional.

Festplatten / FEST 30/CD02
[Todd Burns]