Clubland September

Johannes Heil is one of those rare bread of producers who can wake up one morning and discover he's accidentally penned another album in his sleep. Since his debut in 1995 the German stalwart has notched up more than fifty releases, including an impressive nine albums and a bucket-load of remixes. His skills are transferable across many different genres; as at home crafting brutal, skull splitting techno as he is at etching out elegant, graceful electronica. 

One of his strengths is his ability to turn his productions into sonic architecture, which has meant that even his most simplistic ideas come across sounding fully realized. This is most evident on the track “Glockenspiel”, where Heil shapes the track around child-like chimes, something he has done in the past on “The Chains of Babylon” from the Future Primitive album. But where “The Chains of Babylon” was a slice of big room rave, “Glockenspiel” remains a kinetic, understated pieces of tech house. The opening track, “Hallelujah” is also immaculately sculpted and a real throwback to some of Heil's older work where he wasn't afraid to chop up break beats and use them in a techno setting. Resonant jungle drums are slowly beaten, augmented by machine made claps and the buzzing of flies, wild animal calls and African chants. It's Heil at his playful, experimental best, and despite it being the opening track is one of the album highlights.

Other points on the album sound staid and formulaic in comparison. “To the Groove” feels like tech house filler while “Freedom of Heart” lacks just that.

Listening to some of Heil's older work, I feel like the signature stamp that was embossed on those is missing here and that makes Loving feel like more a collection of singles than a cohesive album. That's not to say it is completely absent here, as tracks like “A Holo Static”, “Hallelujah” and “Glockenspiel” all possess that undefinable quality that made Heil's tracks stand out in a crowd of doppelgängers. But for the most part, Loving could be an artist album from any number of a bunch of producers, which is a shame considering the ability Heil possesses to sound so individual.

SIDEBAR

Sometimes the hottest tracks simply pass you by before you can nab them. Try and get your hands on these super limited sound nuggets:

Jazzmoon's White Tools EP comes at you on the super low key Playtracks label out of Germany. Further investigation reveals that the space flute wielding protagonist is T. Bachner aka Zweikarakter, mainstay of the label and co-founder. Two tracks of ultra deep yet forceful house that threaten to suck your heart out through your twitching, dancing feet. No really, they're that good.

Dee Edward's 1972 classic “Why Can't There Be Love” gets considerably interfered with by Pilooski, he of the Dirty Edits fame. Edward's original has featured recently on an Adidas commercial and released here on an homage label to the brand called Originals, Pilooski grows tentacles and puts them all to use on the MPC, chopping, slicing and dicing the sweet soul lament into a sticky, frenzied mash. Hot mess doesn't even begin to describe this one.

Brand new for the Detroit wunderkind, Kyle Hall's Sun Goddess EP furthers his reputation as the young producer all the old cats are steadily growing more and more jealous at. Releases on Hyperdub, FXHE and Moods & Grooves have all impressed, but for his latest, Hall brings it back home to his own Wild Oats label. “Solar Funk” rides the line between jacking Chi-Town house and disco laced euphoria, while “Dancen With A Sun Goddess” fires up the little silver box and waves the flag high for the acid revival.

Johannes Heil – Loving

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Old guard of German techno fails to leave his indelible mark on latest long player

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