- The "versatile techno" description on Patrick Gräser's Facebook page neatly sums up this pair of 12-inches for Marcel Dettmann Records. Gräser has been releasing records under his own name since 2009 but has more recently been focussing on his Answer Code Request guise, a vehicle for increasingly impressive forays into techno and its outer-lying forms. His approach is perhaps only twice removed from Shed, but only insomuch as his ears are equally as wide open.
"The Host" begins the EP of the same name with brutally smudged kicks and an itchy top-end. 16th note synths stack up in collaboration with the percussion, disorientating the track's internal clock. It's just about the toughest thing Gräser has produced. "Thu" then shimmers on a gossamer late '90s IDM tip, before "Mikro" achieves profundity through an affecting arpeggio and stubby broken beats.
Main Mode is similarly assorted. The title track is a busier take on the rolling techno so favoured at Gräser's new regular club home, Berghain; this sense of denseness would arouse a dance floor but is a touch fatiguing for the home listening environment. "Biokenetik" also gorges itself on the entire frequency spectrum. Its bass and pseudo-ethnic percussion make for a scruffy little breakbeat number that merely plays with the idea of an emotional response. The untitled EP closer employs another broken beat but fully embraces a sense of poignancy. Gräser's multifarious music and club bookings seem to confirm a name in the ascendancy.
トラックリスト A Main Mode
B1 Biokenetik
B2 Untitled
A The Host
B1 Thu
B2 Mikro