- Those fun-loving Minilogue boys Marcus Henriksson & Sebastian Mullaert had another bumper year in 2008, with Animals making a host of end-of-year lists and the steady stream of quality singles showing no signs of slowing. The duo's enduring appeal lies in their ability to negotiate so many styles without sounding like they're trying to fit them all in: Techno and house, deep and minimal, dub and trance, even jazz. They all make appearances, often in a single track, but never to the point of pastiche. And while these two workhorses for Mule offer no new tricks, when the results are this satisfying who's going to argue?
Like all their productions, both tracks roll out a steady drum track, throw in a bassline, then decorate with clunky keyboard noodles and motley homespun samples. Like "Hitchhiker's Choice" and their jazzier tunes, "Hundraelva" works dancing synth tones into a lather, raindrop blips and bulbous notes stumbling like punchdrunk prize-fighters. There's a spastic lurch to these riffs, moreso than in the tinklings of Cobblestone Jazz, say, and the sparer framework and bolder drums work in their favour. "My Teenage Gang" re-examines "Cow, Crickets and Clay," pinching wholesale the grey dub pulse. But where that track kept things steely and cold, this detours into the kind of tribal minimal Gabriel Ananda fancies. Conga rhythms, bird calls and looped world music chants call forth a humid safari, the title cooed by a cheeky child, making for an exotic backdrop to the Teutonic dub techno rhythm.
Tracklist A My Teenager Gang
B Hundraelva