- Barnt's first EP since 2014 arrives on Holger, a Leipzig-based label run by Jan and Steffen Bennemann. (Steffen is also known for booking Nachtdigital festival.) As someone whose club tracks tend toward icy synths and propulsive drum experiments, Barnt is a natural fit for the Bennemanns' project. But what sets Barnt apart from most of his peers is the clarity of his ideas. Using only drums and synths, Barnt's music resonates in a way that seems beyond producers who employ a wider range of tools. On "A-Seite 1-5," Barnt summons his kosmische forebears in an elegant, nearly ten minute-long synthapella. "Seite" is German for page (and for side, as in A-side), and as you follow the emotional changes in the music, a story, however mysterious, appears to unfold.
As "A-Seite 1-5" makes serial transitions between chirping arpeggios and foreboding synth phrases, the track slides from optimism into solemnity. The sustained synth chords of "A-Seite 1-5"'s mid-section—and, later on, plucked strings with decays that hang in the air like mist—suggest some unsayable sorrow. After a flurry of flute synths, "A-Seite 1-5," which has the narrative structure and theatrical posture of an electronic folk song, offers satisfying closure. The title track, though, is a Barnt club standard: bone-brittle percussion (the snares sound like kung fu sound effects), brutal synth trills and a head-spinning breakdown. Barnt's best club tracks rely not only on extremity but on a capacity to surprise. Without the regimented explosiveness of "Chappell" or the astringent vertigo of "Tunsten," the B-side's dramatic twists seem more obvious.
TracklistA A-Seite 1-5
B If She Says She Is A Healer, She Is A Healer