May 25, 2004

Made a pakt with the devil, sold my soul for a fistful of dots

So: Kompakt 100. What's to say? Where to begin? I'm still absorbing -- and pleased to note that there's enough grit beneath the gleaming surface to keep me occupied, soaking, sponging. Nothing, so far, is as I'd expect it to sound. And I'm pleased to note that this is going to send me back to my shelves for reference purposes, because a lot of the originals I haven't heard in ages. But by way of introduction, how hot is it that Jochem Spieth's mix of Mayer's "17&4" is punctured again and again by a glistening, pointed bleep that sounds straight out of "Tainted Love"?

Top tune so far: Reinhard Voigt's Closer Musik Megamix.

Runner up: Jürgen Paape redoing Schaeben & Voss's "World Is Crazy."

Cheekiest move: Schaeben & Voss remixing themselves.

Surprise pan-Latin masterpiece: Matias Aguayo & Leandro Fresco remixing Fresco's "Cera Uno."

Disappointment so far: Kaito's version of Superpitcher's "Tomorrow." Lovely and breezy, yeah, but I wanted someone to suck the darkness out of that sucker and fill up a vial with it, a potent little cyanide capsule for the days you need it most. Then again, one of the interesting and risky things about a project like this is the inevitable disappointment that ensues, at least for fans like myself who have spent too much time playing Sim Kompakt, wondering what would happen if Jonas Bering took on Dettinger, or Dettinger attacked Closer Musik (another disappointment here, I must add; perhaps that track just couldn't have been improved?). It's not just the relative success or failure of a particular track, but the lost possibilities. If Kompakt is going to go this far with it, I want them to go all the way, a total many-to-many remix free-for-all, each Kompakt artist remixing every other one in a sort of massive distributed simultaneity that would gather together the collective essence of Kompakt and parcel it out into thousands of little truffles. I know that the format of this comp was that Kompakt's core artists chose their favorite tracks to remix, but that's too much choice for me. Wolfgang is a powerful guy -- why couldn't he just have ordered his minions to undertake the most massive remix project of all time? (And yes, I realize I'm being greedy.)

Posted by philip at May 25, 2004 07:43 PM
Comments

I am curious what Kompakt 100 is? Is it a Kompakt release project?

Posted by: jamie at May 26, 2004 09:33 AM

Sorry, sometimes I forget that not everyone reads ILM religiously (where the info on Kompakt 100 was first publicly posted).... Here are the details:

•••••••KOMPAKT••••••

KOMPAKT 100 KOM 100 4 LP/DOCD 34 COMPILATION 28 JUNE 2004 APPROACHING THE MAGIC NUMBER 100, WE WERE AWARE OF THE FACT THAT WE HAD TO COME UP WITH A SPECIAL JUBILEE EDITION. AND ACTUALLY, THERE WERE TWO REASONS FOR CHOOSING THIS FORMAT: ON THE ONE HAND, WE DIDN'T WANT TO RELEASE JUST ANOTHER COMPILATION, BUT RATHER MAKE A WELL THOUGHT-OUT CONCEPT RECORD. ON THE OTHER HAND, AT TIMES WHEN MUSIC IS UNDERGOING RADICAL CHANGES, WE WANTED TO SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY TO NOT ONLY CELEBRATE THE LABEL, BUT ALSO A SUSTAINABLE VISION OF TECHNO MUSIC. AS REGARDS CONTENT, THE CONCEPT WAS RATHER EASY: EACH PARTICIPATING KOMPAKT ARTIST WAS ASKED TO CHOOSE ONE TITLE OF THE PREVIOUS 99 KOMPAKT RELEASES AND MAKE A REMIX. THE RESULT: 21 AMAZING, BRILLIANT, SOMETIMES UNEXPECTED, BUT ALWAYS VERY INVENTIVE TRACKS, RANGING BETWEEN COSMIC, RATTLING TUNES AND PRIMETIME SAWING SOUNDS. SO FAR, THIS IS THE MOST ENCYCLOPAEDIC OVERVIEW OF KOMPAKT'S TRADITION OF CONSTANTLY RE-DEFINING THE LIMITS OF TECHNO MUSIC. APART FROM THESE INTERNAL FORMALITIES, IT IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR US TO MENTION THE RECORD'S PROSPECTIVE RATHER THAN ITS RETROSPECTIVE VIEW. IT IS 2004, I.E. 15 YEARS OF TECHNO MUSIC. TECHNO IS NOT NEW ANYMORE, BUT IT STILL IS THE MOST UP-TO-DATE, THRILLING, UNPREDICTABLE, EXCITING AND BEST OF ALL MUSIC STYLES ON THIS PLANET. WE KEEP GOING! KOMPAKT MAY 2004 P.S. THE OFFICIAL KOMPAKT 100-RELEASE PARTY TAKES PLACE ON AUGUST 20, 2004, AT RHEINPARK COLOGNE, IN THE REALM OF THE C/O POP FESTIVAL AND IN GOOD OLD TOTAL PARTY TRADITION. AMONG THE TOP-CLASS GUESTS OF HONOURS: LIVE LE PETIT ORB (THOMAS FEHLMANN / ALEX PATERSON) REINHARD VOIGT / ALTER EGO DJS MICHAEL MAYER / TOBIAS THOMAS / DJ KOZE / SUPERPITCHER TRIPLE R / BEATSCHUBIGER / GEO / JO SAURBIER AMBIENT LOUNGE ANIMA / VERONIKA / DJ KOZE VISUALS YVETTE KLEIN

Posted by: philip at May 26, 2004 09:40 AM

Thanks for the info. That will be one to watch for. Lots happening these days on kompakt.

Posted by: jamie at May 26, 2004 10:52 AM

Another Question - What's ILM?
I am always on the hunt for reading material at work.

Posted by: jamie at May 26, 2004 11:49 AM


Check http://www.ilxor.com/newquestions.php?board=2

Posted by: pH at May 27, 2004 06:14 AM

i hate to be negative but ILM makes me never want to listen to music ever again let alone read anything about it etc. in fact it makes me never want to use the internet again. just read this here blog and save yourself the acronym education.

kompkat, however, makes me happy, although i'm not sure if i'll be handing over the money for this comp, but it's great to see a fantastic lable get this far.

Posted by: nathan at May 27, 2004 10:08 AM

Philip, I'm sorry to disagree, but I LOVE THE KAITO / SUPERPITCHER REMIX!! Don't know how, but it works for me. It really works...

Posted by: Javier at June 3, 2004 11:42 PM

KAITO / SUPERPITCHER, Thats absolutely incredible, it worths the buying of this 4lp

Posted by: Kike at May 22, 2005 07:35 AM
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