- Techno for big moments.
- This first release on Ellen Allien's new UFO Inc. label sees the Berlin artist maintain her focus of the last few years: straight-up club tracks. Across her long career, Allien's sound has generally oscillated between the club and home listening (although some has fallen in between), with styles like pop, electronica and ambient appearing on her albums, and techno and minimal shaping her singles. Then in 2017 she released an album, Nost, that featured some of the most conventional techno she'd ever made. It wasn't a total success, but her single for Nonplus last year, Take A Stand, had more attitude and invention.
The fact that trance and other more theatrical styles of dance music are currently popular will probably count in UFO's favour. Both tracks have breakdowns that, if taken in isolation, could be sampled from late '90s progressive trance tracks. Many techno DJs will find this too much. "Korpermaschine," in particular, really hams up its extended breakdown, but it could also be an ecstatic moment in the right setting. The track also features an effective kick and bassline combination, and one of those robotised voice samples that toy with people's mental state on a dance floor. "UFO" uses an acid bassline to drive its progress towards a subtler but still dramatic breakdown. There's also a nice shift in the rhythm as the kick drum doubles up and the filter on the 303 is gradually opened.
TracklistA UFO
B Korpermaschine