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Modeselektor, "Hello Mom!"
Modeselektor's debut full-length release focuses their technicaldexterities on a brilliantly diverse collection of robotic pop andround, hazydub currents, full of guest vocalists, humorous suggestion, and energythatfeels entirely organic despite the continually wow-ing productionplays.
On past 12” singles (the only things they’ve put out until now),Modeselektor seemed to me the token glitch or IDM artist on the Bpitch Controllabel. The gloss of precise cuts andcomplex, dubby bass parts made a Modeselektor track stand out among label compsor remix collections, though from a distance, I think, the glitch factor endedup familiarizing the tracks, separating them from a label aesthetic founded onthe odd, the unpredictable, and the contradictory. The hyperactivity of Modeselektor’s earlytracks, though at home in a one-off remix for labelmates, felt oftengratuitous, pushing the music toward a thinking-man’s stasis, a numbingmonochrome when the label’s larger goal seemed always a technicolor amalgam ofpersonality and stylization, past and future.
If thosefirst 12” singles alienated label fans, the duo’s first full length might do the samebut in the opposite direction. Many of these tracks hit on what I’d call instrumentalhip-hop by today’s standards; even the ones without someone toasting ontopachieve urgency and emotion through the play of thick hooks bracingagainst themetallic underlayer.
The duo iscareful to counter their more mechanized moments with vocal humanity, and thesetracks become some of the best: TTC’s French rap pushed through a kaleidoscopeof stuttered arabesques in “Dancing Box” or Sacha Ferera’s relentlessM.I.A.-ism, “Silikon.” Elsewhere, trackslike “In Loving Memory” or Paul St. Hillaire’s “Fake Emotion” create perfectisolations from dancefloor, blending bright dub with the cool streamlining ofGerman techno, as Mouse on Mars might. With “I Love You,” the album closer, Modeselektor proves that they’veeven mastered their glitchist tendencies, creating a sugary, transcendenthomage to classic IDM.
The hardened,brutally anthemic techno that has dominated most of the recent Bpitch 12” singlesmight be the only thing left un-tried on HelloMom!, though remixes are soon to follow. A new favorite of mine, the record is surprisingly solid, in consistencyand emotional gratification, and gives back in many different listeningenvironments. Hi mom.
samples:
- Fake Emotion (feat. Paul St. Hillaire)
- In Loving Memory
- Ziq Zag
