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ARBITRARY 020CD
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Just because Denseland take inspiration from the past, doesn't mean they're stuck in it. On their first album since 2017, their second for Arbitrary, the Berlin-based trio instead ventures slowly but steadily into unknown territory. Hanno Leichtmann and Hannes Strobl's dub-infused, bass-heavy rhythmic minimalism in combination with lyricist David Moss's sonorous yet deadpan delivery opens up a space that feels both claustrophobic and infinitely wide. Like previous Denseland albums, Code & Melody picks up on the sparse side of dub-enamoured post-punk, no wave, post-rock, adventurous electronic and improvised acoustic music and blends this with a vocal performance marked by a Lou Reedian cool, a confrontationalism à la Lydia Lunch and, occasionally, an experimentalism akin to Scott Walker. The result is as unique and ambiguous as the record's title: Musical formal rigor enters into a dialogue with poetic reflections on the beautiful mess that is the human experience. The record's starting point were multiple improvisational sessions between Leichtmann and Strobl. Strobl used his electric bass and electric double bass, whose characteristic sounds "were expanded through the use of special playing techniques in combination with live electronics," as he explains. After adding overdubs to some of the recordings as well as guest contributions on three pieces by Katharina Bévand on modular synthesizer, the resulting tracks served as the perfect backdrop for Moss's performance. The sounds that accompany them on Codes & Melody complement that seamlessly: This is both physical and cerebral music, rigid and flexible, obsessed with the dialectic of repetition and difference -- with moving forward.
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MINIMAL 021CD
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There is a certain type of music that echoes the feeling of a dark promise. It triggers anxiety, and it is precisely this effect that makes it appealing and as fascinating as a Cronenberg film. Denseland's music oscillates precisely within this suspense. Hanno Leichtmann, Hannes Strobl, and David Moss have already released an album titled Chunk (2010). Now they bring us Like Likes Like with the Berlin label M=minimal and seek to combine everything that belongs together. Rhythmic textures, rudimentary melodies and a clear renunciation of harmonies develop into a lesson on the subject of minimalism. The songs produce a deep and chilly effect, and beyond the rhythmic structures appears David Moss' magical "sprechgesang" (a vocal technique somewhere between speaking and singing). His voice seems to whisper directly in one's ear. It creaks, it grumbles. It then expands and shapes into a sort of singing as ghostly voices breathe in the air. It is precisely this vocal that widely contributes to a feeling of discomfort on Like Likes Like. Almost all repetitive music operates on the principle of hypnosis through repetition. Sometimes a song needs a few minutes to unfold its hypnotic effect; on the contrary, Denseland needs only a few seconds. The centrifugal force in its downbeat repetitions becomes practically unavoidable. Denseland's members depict mastery in opening new frontiers, employing minimal resources with maximum efficiency. Descriptors such as "slow-motion funk" or "minimal spoken-word noise techno" do not live up to the trio's dark and energetic tracks.
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