- Klockworks feels like proprietor Benny Klock's dark little secret. Benny time, if you will. Not that his (mostly excellent) releases on Memo and Ostgut Ton are handbag house affairs, but it feels like the two Klockworks releases to date (which, by the way, we are presuming are by him) are made with his marathon sets at Berghain in mind. The sparse information on the label, in a way, mirrors the anonymous, intense atmosphere his DJ sets generate in that impressive room, when the tourists have thinned-out and things start getting interesting.
That said, there's not a hell of a lot happening on the A-side, Onyx, the more testing of the two. Over an embedded, prodding bassline, a relentless, reverbing clank is the centrepiece: bouncing, stuttering and dubbing hypnotically throughout, like a kinetic ball toy with ADD. Klock varies the precise machine-like percussion to add definition, while the harsh, scuttling FX add menace. It's pure, pressure-cooker minimal techno intended for the headstrong. But keep focused on that relentless, trance-inducing stab and things become more interesting.
'Sean' is brighter and better. Klock builds a simple, shifting groove (made for the mix) and then teases us with it: he lets it roll for half the track as, at the command of a convincing swoosh, various snares, pads and kicks build and drop, come and go. Its simplicity makes the arrival of the main event doubly-impressive – a deep, angular and very memorable bassline that elbows its way to the fore, a sharp, Teutonic re-imaging of a classic Mr Fingers moment. (In fact, 'Sean' has been ringing in my head since I heard Klock play it two months ago… roughly around 10 minutes before I decided it was time to call it a morning.)