Onur Özer - Watergate 01

  • Share
  • Some mix CDs make their mark by mood or feel, or by taking you on a roller coaster ride, sonically. This one, the first mix for a mooted series from Berlin's Watergate Club, is all about the transitions. In whole it's certainly one of the most inviting techno mixes of the year; songs are more or less minimal (Perlon, 100% Pure, Hello/Repeat, and Vakant figure among the labels), but it's also noticeably lighter of touch than a lot of minimal sets. It's not as purely beautiful as—to pick a contemporaneous title—Luciano's Fabric 41, largely because Özer's selections are often pared down, however trickily. I mentioned Perlon, right? That's one reason the joins really do it for me here: his selections are certainly simpatico, but few of them really sound much alike in isolation. Ion Ludwig's remix of Abonne's "Bongospace" is a low-key bass-nuzzler sprayed liberally with hissy digi-cymbals, Jens Zimmermann's "C30" a strangely anxious sweep-and-glide whose snares sound already splattered; together they mesh perfectly. Cassy's "April" jumps out of Sammy Dee's "Purple Hummer" like a suede-finished soul cry; Hector & Star's "La Raza" starts off boisterous and breaks into a weirdly choppy...bird cry, filtered to the skin, maybe? Hard to tell; hard to ignore. And Özer saves the best for last: Jens Zimmermann's mix of his Özer's own "Sahara," as delicate and brittle as a mint wafer, and Sensitiva's "Mimosa," whose chopping rhythms and sudden near-end overlay of cloudy strings recall that olde-timey classick "The Age of Love." There's nothing like a hint of retro futurism to highlight the present.
  • Tracklist
      01. Dewalta - Salgaro (Vakant) 02. Cabanne - Keep Going (Hello?Repeat) 03. Sammy Dee - Purple Hummer (Perlon) 04. Cassy - April (Cassy) 05. Jason Blakemore - Suspicion 06. Abonne - Bongospace (Ion Ludwig Remix) (Opossum) 07. Jens Zimmermann - C30 (International Freakshow) / Taxim in Minor 08. Patrice Bäumel - The Roar (Get Physical) 09. Ralph Sliwinski - Pox Box (Johnny D Remix) (Sushitech) 10. Hector & Star - La Raza (Horizontal) 11. William Kouam Djoko - Hard Loving (Thirtyonetwenty) 12. Onur Özer - Terpsichorean Echoes (Harem Edit) (Vakant) 13. Dinky feat. Jorge Gonzales - Fade Me In (Vakant) 14. Onur Özer - Sahara (Zimmermann´s Wüstenmond Mix) (Vakant) 15. Sensitiva - Mimosa (%100 Pure)
RA