The Grammy-nominated artist Martin Buttrich has been making music since 1992 under different names and aliases, with a number of records on Planet E, Poker Flat, Four:Twenty, and Cocoon. Crash Test will be his first full release under his own name, and it’s released on Desolat, the record label he and Loco Dice founded in 2007. The album collects eleven previously unreleased tracks, picked from among many works he has recorded at his Hannover studio and various spaces worldwide in the past fifteen months, and it’s the first electronic album he’s made without any production partner. Buttrich has spent recent years developing a sound that encompass the entire spectrum between dreaminess, warmth, mechanics, melancholy, and calibrated dancefloor precision. Ultra-detailed and easily accessible, his catalogue showcases some of the most influential dance tracks since the nineties, and he’s a master of tasteful remixes like Moloko’s “Familiar Feeling,” the massive Tracey Thorn’s “It’s all True” and The Whitest Boy Alive’s “Unknown.”

Crash Test is a long player that should be listened to from start to finish; a fluid and coherent sequence of shifting moods, from organic and analog textures to plonky minimal house and deep, wobbly tech-house. The productions are in-depth and pack a lot of weight; his trademark of a bass heavy sound that bounces like a Matthew Herbert track, and he’s probably one of the greatest when it comes to that heavy and tasteful room filling bass. You can trace small samples of hip hop, jazz, dub and funk, but Crash Test is an electronic dance album without too many different genres or styles. The album contains more acoustic and analog instruments than the German studio wiz and producer usually uses, and he stretches the language of 4/4 club music. The record kicks off with the weak “Tripping In The 16th,” a loungy Dimitri From Paris on steroids sounding track with some sharp drums. The album’s midpoint hosts its highlight with “Enough Love To Hate It,” an epic slow builder with piano keys and Fever Ray-ish vocals. “You Must Be This High” offers dubstep aestethics and spacious reverb, and his attention for details is all over the track. Closing track “You Got That Vibe,” is a beautiful and quirky, alternative R&B sounding cut that feel like fish out of water compared to the rest of the album.

Martin Buttrich is a master in the studio, but most of the tracks blend together like a long jam. You won’t find any signature anthems, and it gets a little ambient and repetitive. High quality, but not very fresh

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