Bienfait

Album review

Frenchman Jonas Bering joins the ranks of Cologne, Germany's Kompakt stable in fine fashion with Bienfait, the label's second single-artist full-length. Most of the material here actually aligns itself more with Berlin's double-whammy experimental dub axis of the Basic Channel and Chain Reaction camps rather than steeping itself in the pop-angled tech-house Kompakt is known to showcase. Fear not Kompakt-heads, as a couple of the tracks roam freely within the spaced-out beatless limbo that producers like Olaf Dettinger and Wolfgang Voigt populate from time to time. And fear not Chain Reaction-heads, as many other tracks sound like a midpoint between early Monolake and later Porter Ricks with a little more gushing immediacy. (The third selection even sounds like a missing piece from Burger/Ink's Las Vegas.) Burbling basslines, swathes of vapor, and lightly squawking textures that add menace or a sense of weightlessness each have a place. More importantly, no two tracks sound alike. The young Bering might not quite be on the same level as those mentioned above, but look at it this way: How many My Bloody Valentine fans have no place for Slowdive in their collections? Not a whole lot. And it sounds like Bering's merely getting his toes wet here.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo