Thomas Brinkmann - 'Monika/Nicola' (Ernst)

The end is near, but first we gotta trudge through four more techno tracks, named after Monika and Nicola. 'Monika' starts with a full on dance party, but it's the second track that gets back to what I'd actually call minimalism. There's a lot of chirping and high-pitched oscillators zig-zagging back and forth, and I like it. I don't think it's enough to keep my interest though; by the end of 'Nicola' I've tuned out, unable to lock into the relentless grooves. I know Brinkmann is really celebrated but it's still dance music to me; I don't think he fights the impulse for the easy dancefloor hook enough, and that stuff is just kryptonite to my ears. Space is good, and on the best tracks I think he achieves this despite the frantic pace. But 'Nicola' thickens up the mix with resonating bass frequencies and wider brushstrokes; I'm sure this approach has its champions but I'm unfortunately not one of them. We've only got one more named Brinkmann to get through, and at the moment, I'm thinking these have to go on the sell pile. They've been cluttering up Dislocated Underbite Spinal Alphabetical Encourage Templates for far too long, and the parts I'm fond of aren't enough to justify keeping them. Maybe there are one or two sides I like, but these belong together as a set, even though I don't have anything past P.

Thomas Brinkmann - 'Karin/Lotte' (Ernst)

Instead of the two sides of this record representing two personalities, it's somewhat sideways. The Women of Brinkmann series is always two tracks per side, but in this case the first track of both 'Karin' and 'Lotte' bear similarities, and the second tracks too - there's more cross-side affinity than same-side, dig? To analyse this in musical terms, well, the easy way to put it: the first track of each side is fun and the second one is intense and menacing. 'Karin' is so fun that I truly don't enjoy it, as it's upbeat dance clang is marred by excessive vocal sampling. These voices keep urging me to shake my ass or something like that; I try to tune out the meaning and just focus on the human voice as instrument, but alas, I fail to appreciate it. 'Lotte's opening cut is less loquacious but just as bouncy. I enjoy it more, though part of me thinks I've gotten stuck in that horrible rave scene in Matrix 2. Of course, this is eletronical minimalism but it feels like Brinko's lost the plot a bit; it's all right to desire diversity and development in one's work though, so I don't want to fault him for not making record-after-record of 'clicks and cuts'. I've enjoyed the sides that show the more pulsing, dark atmospherics, and the second half of 'Karin' is exactly that. The undercurrent builds up and it's relentless, though hammering with dull thuds instead of the icepick poise.