DJ BALDUIN Schallplatten & CDs

Review: German DJ and producer Balduin maps depthy terrains of ambient and trance-dance with thermoset sonics, on the new three-track EP 'Everything'. Few house music producers take pains to add extra "delicacy" to their beats and textures, but the opener 'You' proves Balduin an exception. A faint tapey warble on a pre-drop vocal sample ("you... are everything") professes much extra care and an ear for nuance, if not for the declarative concern for the listener themselves, hinted at in the sample. The same sculpted textures are plied out further on 'Somar', which works ultra-subtle arps behind relatively syncopated beats, and 'Andever', on which what sounds like pigeon-automata sing faint cooing songs against the EP's knockiest beats.

Review: DJ Balduin is back with a new long player some five years after his last. This one comes on Kann Records and is another tasteful trip into the depths of electronic music with trip hop, breakbeat, ambient, tech house and techno all colouring the grooves. Importantly it is steeped in emotion with each of the well crafted sounds hitting a perfect sweet spot. Core to this is the artist's ability to craft perfect loops that can roll for days and never grate. "He doesn't like to think in categories," says the press text. "By reinterpreting genre-specific elements, discovering unheard soundscapes and with a good portion of nostalgia, he sculpts little stories that vibe on dance floors and in living rooms alike." Amen to that.