Extrawelt - Mind Over Doesn't Matter

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  • With an album of sleek fever-night songs on Cocoon already under their belt, 2008's been a good year for Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe. Now the duo returns for the year's final Traum release, Mind Over Doesn't Matter. Though not a great departure from Schöne Neue Extrawelt, Mind Over Doesn't Matter finds the two with just a bit more twinkle in those black eyes. "Im Garten Von Eben" could well have been an album outtake, its dim-morning synth pattern a short glow just as the track's moony tones and clicking cellar bound rhythms tire of playing strange forest games in the dark. Much like Traum heavyweight Dominik Eulberg, Extrawelt have always lured you in with promises of delayed gratification, an unsigned contract between themselves and the listener that, eventually, light would break after such efforts at laying a foundation. They shoulder you with heavy things knowing an instant's turn—come minute six—will loosen their weight, and "Im Garten Von Eben" is no exception. "Erste Unversicherte Allgemeinheit," on the other hand, is as brawny and stern as anything the duo's created in years. Beneath a bassline that's almost too broad in the chest and an old school electro beat, the duo weave the kind of instantly engulfing melody that might have featured on any of Ellen Allien's older records; it's so elementary, so stark and simple, it's a fool's errand to explain its crude draw. Brainless libidinal levity is Extrawelt's mark, and they hit it. Meanwhile, "Aufnahmezustand" is gummier, just as direct but harder to really match pace with; the duo's headthrob techno suffers from too much internal pressure, a bubble that's bound to burst before it really takes to air. Still, for two-thirds of its length, Mind Over Doesn't Matter showcases things that don't so much bump as glide in the night, and it's another keeper from Extrawelt's busy year.
  • Tracklist
      A Im Garten Von Eben B1 Erste Unversicherte Allgemeinheit B2 Aufnahmezustand
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