eMusic

Start Your Trial

Touch

by

Michael Mayer

 
Touch
view larger image View Larger

Rate it!

Avg: 3.0 (36 ratings)

Long-awaited solo debut from the Kompakt label's primary spokesperson distills the hard-hitting energy behind Mayer's DJ sets.

  • We Say...

    Review by Philip Sherburne

    Wolfgang Voigt may be regarded as the father figure of Cologne's Kompakt label, but Michael Mayer is, in many respects, its primary spokesperson, given his frequent DJ appearances around the globe. But despite numerous singles for the label, Mayer has never felt like one of its more prolific artists; it took him nearly a decade to get around to releasing this, his solo debut.

    Unsurprisingly, it sounds very much like a distillation of the energies driving Mayer's DJ sets. It's frontloaded with ballsy, hard-hitting stompers, like "Touch," "Heiden" and "Neue Luthersche Fraktur," that retro-fit early '90s Frankfurt trance with unlikely touches of disco, New York house and even funk. What Mayer occasionally lacks in rhythmic sophistication, he makes up for with his ear for expansive, unusual tone color; his synthesizers feel less like waves of sound than shuddering, gloopy forms. The latter half of the disc represents Mayer's inclinations away from the dance floor. "Lovefood" is dreamy, romantics' pop with muscle; "Funky Handicap" is a drunken shuffler for the lover that didn't expect to come home from the club alone. The closing "Amabile" is Mayer's contribution to the swinging, shuffling Schaffel sound, a Kompakt favorite. It's a rhythm that can often evoke waltzing hippos, but in Mayer's hands, it's done with grace and even tenderness.

  • They Say...

    Review by Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

    The price Kompakt paid for its strong graphic identity and revered reputation can be summed up by one well-meaning but misguided phrase that is often used when discussing a bassline, a track, or even an entire DJ set: "Kompakt style." Despite releases that cover several stripes of dance and non-dance music, the concept of a Kompakt style shuts out a large portion of the label's output (in addition to shortchanging other producers and labels). We're talking about one of the most diverse dance labels around, something like a Sub Pop to Chain Reaction's Sarah. Michael Mayer, one of Kompakt's operators, deals with this very problem. None of his own adored tracks prior to Touch -- "Heaven," "17 & 4," "Amanda," "Love Is Stronger Than Pride," "Falling Hands," the co-productions with Reinhard Voigt, and on and on -- resemble one another beyond having a dance beat, and yet Immer and Fabric 13 -- his pair of mix albums from 2002 and 2003 -- have become so well-regarded that his name has become attached to the smooth-gliding, noir-ish kind of microhouse presented on both discs. Touch seems like a reaction to all of this. The dramatic opening title track signifies this immediately, with elaborate passages of swirling strings, distantly placed piano notes, and howling winds. Is this the Mayer everyone knows, or is it an ex-journeyman prog rocker who began dabbling in Pure Moods-tailored new age after departing the 25th lineup of the Soft Machine? The most surprising aspect of the album is how the tracks are as disjointed from one another as any imagined assemblage of Mayer's old material. For someone who notoriously unravels a story during each of DJ sets, it's alarming to hear him turn in an album where the relationships between the tracks are arbitrary. Out of the five new productions, most have elongated go-nowhere stretches where the repetition is more redundant than hypnotizing. Take the 11-minute "Slowfood," a track that fits more in a heist movie than on a dancefloor; well over the first half is spent on set up, with little in the way of payoff following. "Neue Luthersche Fraktur," however, is ideally paced, whipping into a brilliantly layered gale-force charger. The three old tracks are easily the best on the album. "Privat" is stately acid techno with pattering bongos and guitar flicks; "Amabile" is an amiable, circular shuffle; "Funky Handicap"'s strings of blight come off like a Cliffs Notes version of Moodymann's Forevernevermore album, translated from Detroit to Cologne. In these tracks, Mayer's most creative production ideas and DJ instincts lock right into place. They're enough to prevent Touch from being an album that's merely passable.

  • You Say...

    Write a Review

    I would like to say...

    Artist: Michael Mayer

    Album: Touch

    Review Title: (maximum 50 characters)

    Your Review: (maximum 1,000 characters)

    Cancel

    Please keep your comments to the recordings themselves, and be courteous and respectful. Thanks! For further info, read our Community Guidelines.

“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”


Rolling Stone
Start Your Trial

Recently Viewed

Back
Forward

© 1998-2009 eMusic.com Inc. eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks in the USA or other countries. All rights reserved.

All Music Guide © 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC

Facebook®, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia® are registered trademarks of their respective owners, Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Neither Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. nor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. are partners or sponsors of eMusic. eMusic uses the Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia API but is not endorsed or certified by Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. eMusic does not pre-screen, monitor, endorse nor assume any liability for websites, contents, products, services or claims made by Facebook, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia®.

Legal or copyright question regarding Facebook, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia content on eMusic? Please email us.