Sure dubstep had a booming year in 2007, fascinating many who had little experience listening to electronic music. Yet credit should be given where credit is due, and to neglect the relatively recent surge in minimal techno would be a shame. Without wishing to negate minimal techno artists coming out of other cities, it is hard to justify looking elsewhere after hearing what has been pumping in Berlin, Germany the last few years. Though not always accessible, and often not wishing to be so; it seems everybody in Berlin wants to express their own take on the ever-widening minimal techno genre. When exploring the genre it is easy to quickly go from relative big names such as Elien Allien to someone who struggles to sell a couple hundred copies of their latest album. The big names and the unknowns seem to merge together, the difference between the two being arbitrary and useless.
Ben Klock is just one name of many, and likewise his style just one of many. Though minimal techno seems often to stray far from what one would attribute to the genre, Klock is one closer to the roots of the genre. Klock’s minimal techno in
October is dark, the melodies stretching out and pursing deep sounds without really wishing to define itself with any visible features. The beat feels somewhat rigid, pushing on, unwilling to compromise and relent. Though not always a pair that go together well, Klock’s attempt to layer the deep undertones with a strict and inflexible techno beat creates some interesting moments. The beat often seems uninterested in what is going on beside it, and though neither section of the song shows much colour, the tramp through deep shades of blue and gray brings the two parts in line. Like German engineering, one will struggle to find flair, yet to criticize the construction seems silly.
Similarity puts its force into the rhythm, which pulses and seems to add layer after layer together slowly contorting the beat into something totally unlike its conception. The constant shifts in beat feel as though he seems intent on not letting the song come to rest, instead jabbing the beat out of place again and again. Klock struggles to really capture interest through lack of any real melody. Certainly the song does not stand up to its partner, and as such one may find their interest lies only in
October.
As a sampler for Berlin minimal techno, Klock does a good job in showing the essence of the scene. The two songs show where Klock wants to take his own strand of minimal techno, and this is the spirit that seems to be driving the huge supply of minimal techno music floating around in Berlin. It is hard to find genre defining stuff in the scene, but it is easy to find music and ideas like Klock’s
October that prove interesting and enjoyable.
