BURNT FRIEDMAN 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: If anyone deserves a career retrospective, it's Burnt Friedman. The prolific German producer has been plugging away since the turn of the 1980s, delivering consistently impressive releases that subtly doff a cap to contemporary musical trends whilst clearing standing in a myriad of electronic styles. Anthology 1980-2017 brings together a selection of his finest moments (some in unique edited form) from many vinyl-only imprints, alongside a quartet of previously unheard cuts. There's naturally much to enjoy, from industrial-era electronica and dub-fuelled electronic exotica, to warm and twinkling ambient bliss and jazz-flecked IDM curiosities. In other words, it's a fittingly impressive celebration of one of electronic music's longest serving talents.

Review: It's a brave producer - particularly one with such a long career behind him - who calls an album Cease To Matter. But then Burnt Friedman, active since the mid 1990s, isn't your average electronic musician. Happily, the album in question, his first with occasional collaborator Daniel Dodd Ellis, is one of his strongest in recent years. For the most part, it impressively fuses Dodd Ellis's Moodymann-ish spoken word vocals - some inspired by Aldous Huxley's LSD-inspired book Brave New World - to Friedman's unconventional, IDM-influenced dub rhythms and baked downtempo textures. The results are predictably spacious and otherworldly, with sublime piano motifs winding their way around dub basslines, sparse electronics and atmospheric vocals.

Review: Burnt Friedman and Joao Pais Filipe's collaborative efforts began back in 2018. The former using synthesis and electronics to paint subtly but incredibly specific aural pictures, the latter focusing on the drum and rhythmic end of things. At times their music feels entirely designed for the dancefloors of underground electronic clubs, in other moments it's something very different indeed.


This latest EP lives up to those broad brushstrokes. '21-30' is a lush, almost tropical sounding workout that offers a complex percussive pattern, and combines these with gentle shades of melody, harmony, hook and distorted note. '22-105' brings elements of glitchiness and robotics into the mix. Meanwhile, '18-140' would work well as a brooding building tool (or section) of a 'proper techno' mix, with '23-130' bridging gaps between the lot.

Review: Talk about the power of pure rhythms. 'Yek 166-3', to reference just one of four iterations here, is as propellant as anything you're likely to hear in a club, but if heard mid-party would be one of the most challenging curveballs you could ask for. Comprised entirely of tribal-like top end percussive structures set at breakneck pace, it's a great place to start with this release overall - a package that's as much about artistically accomplished complete tracks as it is providing workable elements for use in something larger. A DJ's delight, this isn't to say all four arrangements don't deserve to be heard individually. '134-17' growls and shimmers in a way that's subtly complex, ideal for headphone or big rig play. '128-10' is more about poised dark tech atmosphere, while '127-17' exists within looser frameworks, leading to more serene and relaxed results.