- If awards were given out for productivity in 2006, Audiofly would be second in the queue (after Martin Buttrich). The pair’s CV for the past twelve months makes for dizzying reading - under their various pseudonyms/collaborations they’ve released on (deep breath) Moodmusic, Get Physical, SAW, Connaisseur, Kickboxer, Tsuba, Maschine and Mobilee. DJs as diverse as Ewan Pearson to Sister Bliss to ze trendy Germans have their 12”s in the bag.
Perhaps more than anyone, then, Audiofly sum up the current mood in non-US house music: one big communal tech/electro/minimal love-in. (Mind you, the accompanying press shot does them no favours – it features the pair in full on ‘I am a DJ’ mode: wraparound shades, sculpted facial hair, distressed t-shirts, even more distressed hair… sheesh. Did we not fight the great superclub war over this? Give me mad uncle Sven dancing in his little blue shorts any day.) Anyway, according to the pair, their debut mix CD, ‘Undulations 2’, is – unsurprisingly – an attempt to “encapsulate into 80 minutes a whole night with Audiofly”. And on paper, the mix looks exactly like that: an interesting selection of du jour producers - including Kaliber, Stephan Bodzin, Nummer’s San Lebowski, Layo and Bushwacka and the aforementioned Mr Buttrich - and four of their own productions.
Boxes ticked, so far, so good. But there’s a problem with ‘Undulations 2’ – and it’s quite a fundamental one. It’s boring. This is an issue that goes beyond arguments of taste, genres and trends – the tracks either don’t do enough, or take too long to do it. There are ‘moments’ along the way, but these peaks are followed by occasionally-very-dull indeed troughs. Proceedings only really take off nine numbers in, with the Radio Slave remix of X-Press 2, but at that stage, the jolt of energy feels a little bit predictable. And there’s not enough bang for your buck – in today’s technological world, thirteen perfectly-programmed tracks in 80-odd minutes is not enough. There is no middle ground with a mix like this: it will either appeal to you, or it won’t at all. Or to put it another way, you either like progressive house, or you don’t. But whatever your fancy, the question remains: Why, if people on dancefloors across the world are having more fun than we can remember for years – often to Audiofly productions - does this mix sound so dated and dull?
Tracklist01 Sebastian Roya - Compresion
02 Martin Buttrich - Well Done
03 Kaliber 04 - A1
04 Audiofly X - Lost
05 A Vivanco - Maison Doree
06 Microdinamic - Thunder
07 Layo & Bushwacka! - Less Is More
08 Audiofly X - Cold Light Of Day
09 X-Press2 feat. Rob Harvey - Kill 100 (Radio Slave Remix)
10 San Lebowski - The Reducer 02 (Original Mix)
11 Stephan Bodzin - Cucuma
12 Sleeper Thief - Freefall
13 Rekleiner - Realtime