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Total 7

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Total 7
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Body movers suave enough to also seduce one-on-one.

  • We Say...

    Review by Philip Sherburne

    Anyone who persists in calling Kompakt a minimalist label would do well to spend time with the double-disc collection Total 7. By 2006, the label was no stranger to club success, and many of the best tracks here — Gui Boratto's percolating "Arquipelago," the Field's yearning "Over the Ice," Wighnomy Bros' stormy (and silver-lined) "Wombat" — were bona-fide smashes on dance floors across Europe. Nevertheless, and unusually for a genre where success is often predicated solely upon the ability to move massed bodies, virtually every cut here is suave enough to seduce one-on-one, in virtually any context. Among the standout cuts are Triola's "Leuchtturm" (with the Wighnomy Brothers doing their usual pneumatic drillwork, to predictably grand effect) and Gui Boratto's "Like You," in which Michael Mayer and Superpitcher (as Supermayer) apply sandpapered chords to lovelorn vocals until you can feel your heart peeling away in rosy strips.

  • They Say...

    Review by Rob Theakston, All Music Guide

    In an age where downloading music for free has become the rule and not the exception for many music fanatics, the fact that Kompakt can release several 12" singles (on both the parent label and several assorted sub-labels) and at minimum a full-length album a month over the course of a year is a testament not only to the loyalty shown to the label, but its overwhelming popularity in a dance community that is gradually shrinking and eroding away from its strong base in the early part of the decade. But Kompakt has always prided itself on being the exception to the rule and once again pulls out all of the stops with their latest addition to what has become the audio equivalent of a high school yearbook. Again repeating the double-disc format, Total 7 showcases the best of the Kompakt family's massive 12" output over the past year, and does so in grand fashion. Like every solid edition in this series, there's a mixture of established artists and young scrapping newcomers all awaiting the chance to become the next big producer from the Kompakt stable. Tobias Thomas and Kompakt label head Michael Mayer team up again à la the old Forever Sweet days for the hypnotic "Sweet Harmony," and the always consistent Justus Köhncke makes a stellar contribution with "Love & Dancing." But it's a trio of relatively new Kompakt artists that steal the show: Hug's "The Happy Monster" is a peak time dancefloor number and Gui Boratto's "Arquipélago" shows why he's a force to reckon with behind the mixing console. And last but certainly not least, the Field's shimmering "Over the Ice" takes bits and pieces of Kate Bush's "Under Ice" and turns the samples into a seven-minute opus that ranks up at the top of Kompakt's finest moments for 2006. Granted, die-hard fanatics will always have room to protest or squawk to their friends about how the track listing should have been sequenced, or how their favorite tunes were left off the compilation in favor of something inferior; a testament to how deep the Kompakt catalog runs. But Kompakt's ability to stir up such conversations proves how thriving the label truly is, and how its best days still (hopefully) lie ahead.

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