KOLSCH
1977 (Kompakt)
16/20
It’s been a strange few years for one of Germany’s best loved labels; whilst, rightly, celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, it’s been a while since they released an album as inherently satisfying as Gui Boratto’s Chromophobia or as life changing as Michael Mayer’s Immer, no single as era-defining as Closer Musik’s One Two Three (No Gravity) or Justus Kohncke’s Advance. Things were getting a tad stale over in Cologne.
So when Rune Riley, as Kolsch, put out a series of incredible 12”s for the label’s semi-regular Speicher series – all of which are collected here, along with previously unheard material – things looked exciting again. With 1977, Riley’s crafted an album that’s confidently, completely Kompakt.
The stuff you know sounds as great as it ever did. Der Alte is still destined to be a last-song-of-the-night classic with its soaring strings and early 90s piano stabs, All That Matters is still the best bit of emo-house since Superpitcher remixed Dntel way back when, Opa is still a grinding electrohouse beast in the vein of Alter Ego’s Rocker, Loreley is still a weirdly undulating bit of subaquatic techno-pop. The new material – from Oma’s thick, lubricious chord workout, to the delicate, spectral microhouse of Felix and the maddeningly simple, maddeningly obvious, maddeningly great bassline on Zig – is nearly as good. 1977 is an album free of pretense, a refreshing, quietly great, fun record. Komapkt are back.
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Words: Josh Baines
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