20 Jahre Kompakt: Kollektion 1 [coll] – [Kompakt Schallplatten]

incognito   4/24/2013   A Library, CD

Double CD collection from electronica powerhouse Kompakt, celebrating 20 years in business. This is by no means a definitive collection, but it’s a good start to what Kompakt has been into during its lifetime. For the most part this is a house and techno album, with a few exceptions like Pluxus’ “Transient.” Deep and soulful, light and funky at times, there are some very mellow tracks here that seem more suitable for a grown-up dinner party than the club, but there are a few bangers as well. There is a lot of what I would categorize as progressive, which, though not my cup of tea by far, it’s representative of what was happening in the German house techno scene of the late 90s and early millenium, before the return of the Berlin club sound, the London bass scene and their counterparts in New York, LA and SF in the later 2000s. There is some really left field stuff here, like Gus Gus doing a super proggy/trancey track with a vocal, some choice minimal cuts from DJ Koze and Gui Boratto, and the absolutely face-melting “Unstable Condition” from John Tejada. It’s a pretty big and expansive collection, and I expect that we will see several more to celebrate the 20 year anniversary. You may not love every track on here, but you will certainly feel some tracks in a very real way, if you have a personal connection to this music.