As a person who spends too much time “searching” for new music via what’s handed out for review, I appreciate a good mixtape that will 1) catch me up on what I’m missing 2) provide old stuff that escaped me. And one and two must intrigue me to search out more from each artist.

The following disclaimer accompanies this first full-length release from Berlin party-smarty duo Modeselektor (Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) on their newly inaugurated Monkeytown label:

“…we insisted completely on exclusive and unreleased tracks from all parties included. There’s equal representation between young artists and old farts. It’s a CD filled with little jewels, call it an über-social time capsule.”

The sonic results resemble those found swelling around a well-catered Sundance or Beauty Bar affair (in my mind, these still exist), though one free from ironic nostalgia (i.e. no AC/DC after DFA1979) and focused on details and aesthetics; the vapid thick-necks and chickenheads grumble over the music and pursue each other out the door while those with taste enjoy, remain then pause mid-conversation to query the DJ, “Who is this?!” – this is not wallpaper, in other words.

Using a broad electronica palette, Modeselektor strings the futuristic b-boy wobble of Siriusmo’s “Das Geheimnis” with SBTRKT’s clap-happy- Oberheim pad-driven “The Unspoken” into a wandering blur of modular bursts, sampled fight scene yelps and synth horns from Feadz’s “The Assistant Manager” into the ever-blunted spaciousness of Tadd Mulinex & Daniel Meteo’s “The Good Star”. 2562’s “The Wind Up” and Cosmin TRG’s “Space Station Love Affair” provide, as liner notes put it, “the progression of Dubstep”, both tracks using the genre’s mid-tempo, stunted beat under microsound and chopped disco flares. The highlights, however, are the oddballs such as Apparat’s tribal-stomp-meets-jazz-meets-delay-pedal on “King of Clubs”, Bok Bok’s bastard R&B’d “Say Stupid Things” and old fart Cylob’s polytonal, “we used to call Autotune  ‘voice synthesizer’” spasticity on his closer, “Pepper Spray (Capsicum Edit)”.

Producers, promoters, technologists and DJ’s who straddle the avant-garde with the retarded add “Label Owner” to their business cards; Modeselektor demands that I worry not about what happened, but future preparations.

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