Various - 2010

VARIOUS - 2010

Dial

Hamburg-based Dial Records has over the past decade had grown a reputation for producing solid deep house and post-minimalist music. Featuring a growing roster of well-known acts—including Carsten Jost and Lawrence (both founders of Dial), Pantha du Prince, ad Efdemin—Dial has already left a strong and innovative imprint on the deep and minimal house scenes. Their most recent release, the aptly named 2010, is a compilation album that celebrates the label’s twentieth CD release and tenth anniversary.

As with most compilations, 2010 is something of a mixed bag. The album overall is pretty good, and features a number of strong, well-produced tracks. The album’s better tracks all generate a strong groove and sense of vast space.  Lawrence’s “Treacle Mine” is representative of this. He deftly layers a three-beat punchy synth over a four-beat groove, to contagiously head-bobbing effect. With “Fountain Drive,” Pantha du Prince features a bouncy, playful bass line above a variety of percussive samples. Efdemin’s “Time” uses slowly developing drones that develop a grand sense of space.  Carston Jost’s “Days Gone By” makes use of understated melodies to create a sense of light pathos. And Isolee, in “Black Lodge, “ proves to be the album’s effects specialist. By layering numerous effects, he creates an interesting track that lacks melody but pulls the listener through winding avenues of sound.

Other tracks, however, fail to inspire.  Kassian Troyer’s “Tourist” provides well produced but unexceptional minimal house. RNDM’s “No Beginning” and Christian Naujoks’ “New Heaven and Earth” seem the most influenced by traditional house music, yet both lacks the freshness or “wow” factor the genre sorely needs.

Could Dial have been filling space with 2010’s opener and closer? Both Phantom/Ghost’s “My Secret Europe” and Dominique’s “He Said” have no business being included in the compilation. No doubt, they were included to provide a quiet release from over an hour’s worth of electronica. Yet both tracks feel too far afield, and fail to fit with the album’s overall tenor. This is especially true with the album’s lounge track, “My Secret Europe.” Featuring vocals over a soft piano, it reminds me of a song one would expect to hear in a smoke-filled lounge at 4 in the morning. Yet rather ironically, I found myself listening to it over and over again. Despite the fact that it is most definitely not suited for this album, “My Secret Europe” quietly became my favorite track. It’s loungeriffic.

In the end, 2010 is a pretty good anniversary album for Dial Records. While never really blowing me away, the album is a smorgasbord of well-produced and interesting tracks sitting alongside more unimaginative releases. At the very least, it kicks off Dial Records’ second decade as a leader in the deep house and minimal house scenes. 

Jeremy Yellen