Rating: 7 / Format: CD/LP / Label: Ostgut Ton
It’s a tough thing to quantify the quality of machine music; Berlin DJ-producer Ben Klock sounds more than anything assured on One, his first album for Ostgut Ton (there have only been EPs and 12-inches and collaborations before now). Nothing on this album seems like an accident, or unplanned. That may not be a recommendation in itself, but it explains a lot about One’s appeal: Klock’s sweet-and-dry timbres and the evenhanded way he phases and tweaks them invites you is contemplative without being over-thought.
That isn’t to say it’s perfect. ‘Check for Pulse‘, with overlaid lines mimicking a rising-falling heart rate, is boring and kind of cutesy, like it’s not quite comfortable with its own gimmick-ness. ‘Underneath’ shifts its shape too damn subtly to really get going; “Init One” is similarly bleh, if far shorter (“Init Two,” on the other hand, recalls prime Chain Reaction with little glimmers of glitter round the edges). And even the better moments can induce a pause: when Elif Biçer (who’s also worked with Ostgut Ton’s Prosumer & Murat Tepeli) sings, “Ain’t no happiness/Ain’t no sadness,” through and around Klock’s expert filtering on ‘OK’, the album’s centerpiece, part of me thinks I’d be a little happier if he loosened up a little.
Still, there really is a lot to enjoy here. ‘Coney Island’ and ‘Goodly Sin’ (also featuring Biçer) are a hugely authoritative one-two opening punch, constantly shifting but never pummeling you with how, like, fucking trippy they are. It makes sense that my favorite is ‘In a While‘, which is the kind of modest but gorgeous dub techno the Modern Love label specializes in. It’s subtle—of course. Subtlety is what Klock does, and he usually does it very well indeed.
Michaelangelo Matos