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"Camping 1 & 2" (BPC Compilations)
I turned on to Bpitch Control around the Berlin 2001 compilation, which at thetime was the only available CD release besides its counterpart, Berlin 2000, the first label sampler. The things that first drew me to the label were its punker-collective ethos,reflected in the sleeve designs and the prideful futurism and homogeneity ofpresentation, and the glistening, urban mash-up of their aesthetic, injectingseams of industrial grit, glitchist abstraction, and flashy homage to passétechno and trance classics into the sleek German electro sound.
With the electro revival in full swing at this time, thelabel seemed to ignore, eclipse, or simply swallow all else. With trends fully-waned last year, anever-stronger Bpitch honored its 100th release with a second pair ofdefining compilations, emphasizing both the range of artists “under theirtent,” and the continuing relevance of their effortless and unnamable groupaesthetic, from darkened, seductive portrait of Berlin to crystalline global popdone over with the sexy insurgence of punk or industrial ideologies.
With the electro revival in full swing at this time, thelabel seemed to ignore, eclipse, or simply swallow all else. With trends fully-waned last year, anever-stronger Bpitch honored its 100th release with a second pair ofdefining compilations, emphasizing both the range of artists “under theirtent,” and the continuing relevance of their effortless and unnamable groupaesthetic, from darkened, seductive portrait of Berlin to crystalline global popdone over with the sexy insurgence of punk or industrial ideologies.
BPC 101, the first Campingis a retrospective of classic Bpitch tracks from the beginning. Obviously, at 20 tracks, essentials get leftout (one of the most noteable being TokTok and Soffy O’s out-of-printmasterstroke, “Missy Queen’s Gonna Die”), but many of the best Bpitch artistsare well-represented by some of their best tracks, starting with Kiki’s “LovSikk,” a track representative in its beautiful complication of mood. To a thin, tin-canned bell pattern rhythm, aglossy, Night Rider throb rides thecartooned, chiming swells of a decadent house anthem. The plasticity of these melodic surface parts,in juxtaposition with the coolly dark momentum and stiff pan-ethnic attempts ofthe rhythm track, create tickling complexities that remain subtle andinviting. Nearly every track here begs asimilar analysis, connecting them with a pantheon of popular styles and anunbiased willingness to experiment with texture and association, all in a kindof understated support of collectivity and inspiration through contrast.
The only thing slightly aggravating about Camping is the exclusion of many fine orhard to find label tracks for a few newer or more mediocre ones. Several tracks (Tomas Andersson, Kiki, PaulKalkbrenner) get weighted down in a bottom-heavy, numb techno obsession,feeling particularly unrepresentative of the artists and shrinking the etherealqualities of some of the label’s more seminal tracks also included. The only complete dud, Housemeister’s “Do YouWanna Funk” inexcusably repeats a clip of Kid Rock’s Joe C engaged in banaltoasting that is so annoying I can hardly imagine its appeal even to Europeansless incensed by the Kid Rock phenomenon.
Camping 2 existsnot as an attempt to correct the small missteps or exclusions of itspredecessor; instead its an equally indispensable collection of newer,vinyl-only tracks from some of the most recent Bpitch platters, curated byEllen Allien. The label-founder hasalways included plenty of label tracks into her mixes, and it is an especiallynice follow-up to the first Camping’s‘greatest hits’ presentation to create a vision of the label’s diverse future.
The compilation touches extremes with several subdued b-sideremixes or left-field tracks from the likes of Mochipet, Modeselektor, andFeadz rich with elements of dubby glitch or IDM that have entered labelconsciousness more recently. Elsewhere,newer artists like Tomas Andersson and stalwarts like Paul Kalkbrenner throwdown some of the hardest, four-to-the-floor techno the label has seen,foreshadowing the sound of the more recent batch of 12” singles, dominated byAndersson’s daunting tracks which seem just as robotic and self-generating as theyare perfectly ecstatic, button-mashing rave-ups. Where this direction ended murky orbottom-heavy on the first Camping,here all is refined and sequenced nicely under Allien’s touch. It's especially nice to have rarer remixes,like Miss Kitten’s of Allien's “Alles Sehen” or Kiki's of “Your Body is MyBody,” on compact disc, as well as Allien's own highlights from so many greatBpitch records, hard to find or too numerous to collect.
Samples:
- Tomas Andersson - Happy Happy
- Mochipet - Beautiful Belonious Bits
- Kiki - Love Sikk
