- A welcome look into the creative process of one of electronic music's most gifted producers.
- At this point, Bryan Müller is one of electronic music's most consistently awe-inspiring producers. He moves from whip-smart club tracks to atmospheric album opuses with ease, pairing perfectionism with unearthliness. It's a combination that could feel sloppy or inexact in a lesser producer's hands, but makes LPs like Compro unforgettable, and appealing to those with only the slightest interest in dance music. No matter how long or short, his records feel like considered, whole statements, which is why B (and its predecessor, A, released last March) is such an unusual and curious prospect: a dump of tracks in varying states of completion from 2017 through 2020, lumped together complete with gibberish track titles. It's the latest in a series of archival digs from the Munich producer, a collection of 11 sketches and experiments that only underlines his genius.
A mixture of more downtempo fare and straight-up club tracks, B features the usual jumble of techno and drum & bass ideas, with glimmers of IDM for good measure. "Steamer (Early Mix)" can give anything on Syro a run for its money in terms of grace and complexity. If this was the first Skee Mask track you ever heard, its blend of odd chord scales and skittering drums would easily convince you that we're dealing with someone special. That one comes paired with an alternate version, "Steamer (AD Mix)," whose contrast illustrates the brilliance of Müller's craft. Both are built around the same melody and core drum pattern, but the "Early Mix" is plangent and soft-spoken, while the "AD Mix" focuses on blurry pads and thick, rounded bass, a complete inversion of its predecessor that still maintains the core elements. It's hard to pick a favourite of the two, and hearing both in a row is a valuable look into what the creative process of a Skee Mask track must be like.
There are other killer beat-driven tunes—the surprisingly straightforward electro of "MFB606Delay" or the garagey expanse of "448," where the drums fall into quicksand-like pools of LFO and multi-layered bass. These are contrasted by tracks like "Jambient," Müller's take on Stars Of The Lid-style epic drone, and the glacial sprawl of "JD 372," which feels like a Skee Mask album track with the drums pulled out. The remaining sounds are left to bleed and reverberate to fill the empty space left behind. It's this variety, this slight lack of polish, that makes B so vital in spite of its tossed-together nature.
If I had to come back to just one or two tunes on B, I'd probably pick the opener, "P. Prog"—with its sequencer that thrashes around like an unruly snake, filter envelope opening and closing to lend it some meaty texture—or "AD Dub," which slowly builds from sumptuous ambient into a flighty epic worthy of Compro (which, to my mind, is Skee Mask's greatest record yet). B isn't one of those career-defining LPs, and it isn't supposed to be. It's just a matter-of-fact dive into the work habits, inspirations and fitful muses of an extremely talented artist. When this is what's left on your cutting-room floor, even the scraps are worth scrounging for.
Tracklist01. P. Prog
02. Steamer (Early Mix)
03. Steamer (AD Mix)
04. mWidit (Edit)
05. MFB606DELAY
06. AD DUB
07. 448
08. Jambient
09. JD 372
10. JPP263
11. Portal Perc