Heiko Laux - Fernweh

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  • Where so much modern techno is immersed in dark, industrial influences (sometimes to the point of cliché), Heiko Laux is his own man. On Fernweh, he makes us wait until the last track for a dose of dirt, distortion and heavy reverb, and frankly, his heart doesn't seem to be in it. As the Berlin-based producer's first album in eight years makes clear, Laux's preference is for clean, pristine, deep and groovy techno. For the most part, Fernweh purrs. With his spacey atmospheres, flurries of hi-hats and alternately liquid or chattering chords, Laux sounds like a Detroit classicist, albeit one who underpins his tracks with techniques borrowed from electronic pop. His low-end consists of fast-paced, highly melodic, blanketed bass patterns and muffled kicks that you could call dub techno, but that are more reminiscent of The Knife. Fernweh's title track, which features a lovely wandering melody, could be an instrumental from Silent Shout. To say all of this lacks character wouldn't exactly be true. With its swooping, dive-bombing synths, you could imagine the doomy, cavernous "Hexagon" providing a moment of contemplative drama in a Dettmann set. Propelled along on a fuzzy, bobbling bassline and interrupted by clanging synths, "There There," like the beatless "Shimmer," has a certain charisma. Overall, though, Fernweh, is too laidback, too stylishly streamlined. It's like an Eames chair: beautifully designed, built by a craftsman, hugely comfortable. But it doesn't go any deeper than that. It doesn't move you or startle you in any significant way.
  • Tracklist
      01. Brace 02, Hexagon 03. Fernweh 04. Neutron 05. There There 06. Shimmer 07. Rowing 08. Align
RA