Review Summary: An exciting, breathtakingly crafted vision of techno, filled with trippy vibrancy and playful innovation
The name ‘Boris Brejcha’ may not be familiar to a great many music enthusiasts, perhaps not even to those who prioritize electronic music above all other genres. Operating largely under the radar, but with an impressive amount of acclaim to his name, Brejcha’s highly intricate yet never overproduced style defies expectation at every opportunity, transitioning from delicate basslines and glitch effects to huge beats and unpredictable drops in a heartbeat, giving his music the ability to be anything from an ambient lounge music substitute to a setlist being blasted out on a Saturday night. Although Brejcha has produced an impressive amount of ‘purist’ minimal techno, with clipped effects, muffled bass and a decidedly stripped-down aesthetic, the manner in which Brejcha has integrated these sensibilities into this sound is immediately obvious, albeit with the addition of livelier builds and melodies that flux with schizophrenic style, but also with a distinctly intimate feel. The first half of the
Feuerfalter collection takes on more of a flair for the dramatic than its successor, taking on a more progressive, larger-than-life feel than the decidedly more minimal Part 2. Despite this, Part 1 consistently maintains an intense focus and excitability, without ever sacrificing a single aspect of the huge techno sound Brejcha engineers to perfection.
The instant opener 'Frequenzfett' begins, with its groovy bass and melodic female vocal, the essence of
Feuerfalter is captured. The bass is deep and aggressive, used both to emphasize the rhythmic patterning of the tracks as well as create a whole extra musical dimension. The implementation of effects into the music is frequent and the variety eclectic to say the least. Synths ranging from filthy to angelic swing about the beats as if tethered to them; regulated to extreme levels but given leeway to swing and progress on their own. It’s a wonderful marriage of sound and melody, punctuated by ground-shakingly urgent bass and innovative melodic pockets throughout. In addition to synths, various other sound cues are utilized extensively, yet never feel repetitive. Metronome-style clicks, production-added distortion, sweeping phaser effects and even the DJ-favored soundbyte of blasting air are used in unique ways. The impressive implementation of all these effects isn’t used at the end of bars or just before drops to emphasize the breaks, but rather to add into the melodies of the tracks themselves. Tones and pitch are adjusted and, through sequential utilisation, entirely new tunes are created and depth added to the existing grooves. It is quite remarkable how all of these individual elements feed into each other to create such a painstakingly constructed yet cohesive whole; distinct in sound and never overpowering, but filled with energy and not without a stirringly bleak dark side.
Tracks like ‘The Madness’, ‘Paniklevel’ and ‘Tonight Freak Out’ demonstrate a bigger, more playful sound, whilst always holding true to the minimal aesthetic; skipping beats, vocal clips, and a wealth of dramatic development as the tracks progress are obvious elements, but the true joy is the construction of the musicality itself; the repetition sets up listeners for expectation, but sudden segues into breaks, more complacent moments and the constant re-invention of the sound itself almost smacks the listener out of complacency, resulting in that joyous moment where progression can not only be heard, but felt. The development of complex rhythms keeps the groundwork of every track firmly rooted in the ideal of how it begins, and every element introduced in the duration adds to this, as if the listener is actually experiencing a track being constructed bar by bar as opposed to merely listening (Closing track 'Feuerfalter' being a prime example). The musical and tonal discrepancy between the aspects cements this further, with certain effects and cues initially being shrouded with a thick layer of distortion, only to build and build (sometimes subtly, other times not so much) to a dramatic, and always intensely satisfying crescendo. Warped, certainly, but also with an obvious intelligence that is simply absent from music heard on the large overground club scene. Perhaps the most telling thing about the production, though, is the accentuation of the sound over the defeaning cluster*** of elements heard in such mainstream dance tracks. Brejcha relates more power through a few beats and a deep groove than any build-build-build-HUGE DROP EDM track one would care to mention, simply through understanding that such power comes from the weaving and urgency of the elements themselves, rather than firing on all cylinders at once and creating an artificial sense of energy. Never has the phrase “it’s better to have too little, and then add on” been more applicable.
Self-proclaimed ‘hi-tech minimal’ maestro Boris Brejcha produces more than just minimal techno; he produces a hugely listenable variant of background music for something as mundane as day-to-day life to something as exciting as jumping out of a plane and praying the parachute opens. The fact that the techno vibes are so strong is simply another reason to adore the collection; a sort of love-letter to techno, stripped of the artificiality but retaining the wide-eyed lucidity, Part 1 is an attractive venture into the base ethics of techno before the mainstream got its hands on it, and yet is transmitted in a decidedly modern, innovative manner, with all the ‘hi-tech’ tendancies Brejcha is renowned for. Startlingly diverse and yet always faithful to the core sound, Feuerfalter Part 1 is a disciplined and expansive journey into the mind of the jester mask-clad musician.
