KptMichigan
Player, Player
(Aesthetics)
There were a lot of reasons that I thought I'd really enjoy Player, Player. I'd read several good reviews for the release, it's on the great Aesthetics label (which was responsible for Cold House by Hood as well as In The Afternoon by L'Altra), and KptMichigan collaborated with Schneider TM on what was probably the best song on his recent 6 Peace EP (the cover of The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"). Unfortunately, very little of that winning magic carries over onto this 13-track debut.
It's a bit harsh of me to say that there's nothing interesting going on in Player, Player because that's certainly not the case. Instead, the problem seems to be with contructing the songs themselves. Most tracks on the release start out, go on for awhile with very little change, then fade out or end. Texturally, it's quite lovely throughout, with heavily filtered tones that set a warm tone for the entire release. After opening with some ring tones, "Solong S-20" finds a melody struggling to break free from under a heavy digital curtain while "Fruchtig" moves into sort of a techy, glitch workout that falls into the trap mentioned earlier.
"Derber Papa" arrives about halfway through the disc with a speaker-rumbling blast of red-lined white noise before a submerged rhythm and filtered melody slowly claw their way out of the sound drift. Interestingly enough, it's the album closer of "Hey Brother" that is easily the best track on the album. Completely changing direction, the track is an absolutely wonderful little glitch-folk track that features a pretty acoustic guitar melody and soft vocals amid loads of subtle digital filtering. After the largely directionless majority of the rest of the release, it comes as a nice surprise and hopefully serves as a direction for future work. Fans of deconstructed minimal electronic music will probably find some things to enjoy here (and that final track is glorious for just about anyone), but others may want to wait to see what he comes up with next.
Rating: 6
