Barker has achieved something rare with his weightless techno experiments: a sound that’s instantly identifiable as his own. His signature trick, perfected on four deliriously lovely records for Berghain’s label, Ostgut Tonis to imagine dance music without the kick drums. And the effect, best enjoyed on headphones, is a full dunking into the bliss abyss.
Voltek has often talked about working with specific rules in the studio, and his new single “Reframing” sounds a lot like it was made this way. A nebula of sad synths and space-dust percussion floats high above a simple metronomic tick, its own rhythm slowly becoming unmoored from the beat, a bunch of balloons lost to the heavens. But like a ’60s phase-shifting experiment, the pattern inevitably finds itself back where it started, locked into the pulse again. It’s coming up, it’s coming up… like a big techno drop with a brainy twist, the payoff pairs the minimalist logic of Steve Reich with the emotional heights of trancelord Sasha. Barker’s forthcoming new album, Stochastic Driftis supposedly an exercise in embracing the random. It’s a surprising thought—the ovoid orbits of “Reframing” don’t seem to have emerged by accident. But you could say the same for most objects in the known universe.
Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated that Barker’s real name is Sam Voltek. The producer’s name is Sam Barker.
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