1983

Revered Danish producer and live performer Kolsch follows his 2013 hit album 1977 (KOMP 107 CD/KOM 276 LP) with 1983, again chaining up heroic techno tracks for a grandiose sonic journey to the vibrant heart of today's dancefloor. Coupling contemporary production pizazz with nostalgia-tinged soundscapes and sweeping melodies, this opus acts as both a skillfully composed portfolio of personal memories and a sublime collection of crowd-charming cuts - a modern classic in the making from a master of his craft. Hot on the heels of Speicher 84 (KOM EX084EP, 2015), featuring club crackers Derdiedas and Two Birds, 1983 is very much a travel album: When I was a kid in 1983, we used to drive through Europe every summer on the way to the south of France, Kolsch explains. A lot of my early music memories stem from these long travels, as we would listen to all my father's favorite records on the cassette deck. After getting a walkman, I would make up my own soundtrack for travelling, with early electro and hip-hop creeping into my life. My father of course did not like it, and it never graced the official cassette deck of the car, obviously. Informed by the symbolic quality of these slightly gauzy childhood memories, Kolsch's unique melange of emotional and functional elements works exceptionally well for the full-length format - a seamless transition of musing introspection and explosive expression, where catharsis never seems far away in dance-ready techno vignettes like Moonface, Unterwegs, or Pacer. From beatless opener 1983 to the filigreed piano banger Die Anderen or the bleep-infused synth-fest E45, each cut operates as it's own little time capsule, storing bits and pieces of recollection and then magically transforming them into epic, beat-driven soundscapes. Confronted with other producers' input (and other memories), these traits find themselves extended in the most interesting ways; Talbot, The Road, and Cassiopeia (the latter also featured on Speicher 79 (KOM EX079EP, 2014)) make excellent use of Gregor Schwellenbach's emotive orchestral flourishes, while the lyrics of Bloodline come to life thanks to the distinct timbre of Tomas Hoffding of WhoMadeWho fame. A powerful take on an earlier collaboration, Papageno 30 Years Later not only features the return of WAA Industry on vocals, but also ends the album on a wonderfully elegiac, yet hopeful note, basically turning water into wine, as we've come to expect from Kolsch.