CDV party series and label Geminii releases breakbeat/experimental 9-tracks VA
Read more and listen to our premiere of Katie Drover's 'Where Is It Going'
Like every good party in a pandemic, the Club der Visionaere party, Berlin promoters GEMiNii have relaunched as a label offering up a heady and confident 9-track V/A compilation. The collection is an impressive taste of the label, moving across genres and ideas with an impressive fluidity. The liner notes emphasize an “exploratory” element to the release and we get that in full here. Take, for example, Mylena’s masterclass in the slow burn, “Ende.” The controlled release of chords and a drum that skirts across the stereo field slowly gather echo and reverb as the song sometimes hurries and sometimes stumbles across 12-minutes. In the post-”Bionic Sad” world, we often don’t often seek out tracks that stretch beyond the 10-minute mark, but a song like this that slips in and out of shapes is a reminder of how much you can do with so little.
There are other standouts moments here across an EP that doesn’t sit still for long. There is gentle ambient (Anton Kubikov), groovy tech house (Bauch), and even druggy minimal (Root ft. Adine Frost). But our pick of the bunch, and the one we’re premiering here is from Australian ex-pat and Berlin mainstay, Katie Drover’s “Where Is It Going?”.
The track is moody and introspective from the word go with pulsing pads moving across a skittering breakbeat. As the rhythm slowly fills itself out with the occasional high-hat, you might get the idea that this is just a bit of a groover, a tool for those early moments of intimacy before the floor (or your Zoom call) fills up. But the wisps of piano that stagger in with a broken-tooth smile halfway through transform the track into about as Shazamable as you are likely to get. You could call this track “quietly anthemic.” And while that may feel like a bit of an oxymoron, like the best releases on labels like Smallville or Dial (a label that Drover has turned a track in for previously), it’s able to whisper its beauty rather than shout about it.
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Plus, the 100% percent of the profit will be devolved to support the fight of Denis Kaznacheev against the extradition by the US. Read more and join the cause here.
Words by Henry Ivry.
