Modeselektor: Monkeytown - Album Review

Modeselektor
Monkeytown
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Berlin duo Modeselektor (producers Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) suffer from an interesting dilemma. Like me, they have a passion for a wide range of electronic music genres, and never like to be pinned down to just one. While it suits me as a listener quite well, for a musician it can come across as slightly schizophrenic and disjointed, unless of course, there is something that ties everything together like a certain mood, theme, or lyrical conceit. Borrowing equally from hip-hop, techno, bass music, IDM, glitch, rave, synthpop, and house music, Modeselektor are always keeping the mix interesting, keeping the listener on their toes. Like recent releases from SBTRKT and DJ Shadow, this relentless genre hopping does have its limitations, coming across more like a haphazard mixtape than a true album of related material, however, that doesn't preclude the fact that this is an excellently produced record with way more highs than lows.

Modeselektor utilize a lot of different collaborators, but instead of having them overshine the material, they are seamlessly integrated into the tracks. Probably the best know collaborations are with Thom Yorke, whose vocals are cut up, processed, and used almost in the form of an extra instrument. The skittering "Shipwreck" basically buries Yorke's vocals deep in the mix.



"This" turns Yorke's voice into an ominous warning siren competing with the dark, sinister beats and bass.



They also play with humanizing the vocal tricks, developing Miss Platinum's vocals on "Berlin" from cut-up pastiche to silky, sultry harmonies over electro-R&B beats.



The collaborations that are less successful are the more hip-hop leaning tracks, which standout like a sore thumb. The droning, squeltchy "Humanized" with rappers Anti-Pop Consortium never gets off the ground, and Busdriver rapped "Pretentious Friends," while humorous and features some inventive vocal distortions, just doesn't really fit in the context of the record very well.



To me, the most successful tracks lean more more towards IDM, beat music, or bass music. Opening track "Blue Clouds" takes a million side roads during its 6 minutes, but always retains a warm, radiant buzz.



"Evil Twin" heavily works an industrial-electro meets techno beat.



The dramatic, lurching stop-step of "Green Light Go" merges in some real life drumming courtesy of PVT, which adds a more organic, human element to the dense electronics.



Monkeytown is a fun little record that always reveals new details with each listen, but suffers some from lack of focus. The endless genre hopping feels like whiplash towards the end. Also, the pacing of the record is slightly off; the front of the record is stacked with the most mobile tracks. After the halfway point, things slow down considerably and the album ends more with a whimper than a bang. But if your taste leans towards more eclectic offerings, Monkeytown is definitely a record to check out.

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.