MARCO'S TOP ALBUMS OF 2012 - #12 (Part 12 of 23)

The artist and the release we find at #12 marks the great divide: so far I've ranked pretty much only bands from the industrial-ebm-goth-callitwhateveryoulike scene, but from now on we will find a much wider selection of genres and styles... maybe a sign that our scene needs to up the ante considerably, and that generally it fails to compete with what other musicians are offering outside certain schemes?

I will let you decide.

For now, I'll be satisfied with introducing PAUL KALKBRENNER and 'Guten Tag': once again the Berlin's guru of minimal techno delivers a masterful release, after shaking the world some years ago with "Berlin Calling", once again he manages to bring to his listeners a long journey (17 tracks are not very easily found in the more mainstream releases, these days) creating very complex soundscapes using sparse productions made mostly of bass and groove.

Most of all, this is music that manages to keep something that is, in my opinion, completely lost in the various others productions of mainstream electronica, such as the varios EDM, Dubstep and most Hard Electro - and yes, I'm thinking at all the "cool" names of the moment, from Skrillex to Noisia to Excision, you name the rest: Kalkbrenner manages to keep the soul in his music, he's not just making music by numbers in search for the next hit for the masses.

And this is what makes ALL the difference.

Suggested listening: "Spitz-Auge", "Der Burhold", "Trümmerung".