Gas / The Field / Kompakt
Hope you guys like song comparisons, because here’s my third one in as many days, for some reason. This week, at the behest of Whiskey Transfusion, I’ve been listening to Pop, the final album recorded by Kompakt Records co-founder Wolfgaing Voigt under has Gas alias. The album, with its seven lengthy, untitled tracks, represents the culmination of Voigt’s mission as Gas to “bring the forest to the disco, or vice-versa”, a description I’d say is pretty accurate.
He’s often labeled “minimal techno”, but that would be a stretch for the majority of the tracks on Pop, which only have the slightest hint of a pulse underneath many looped layers of lush ambiance. But on tracks 4 and 7, the style of the preceding compositions come together with a 4/4 bass thump to create something hypnotic and unique that I could venture to call minimal techno. In fact, I can hear traces of the sound that Axel Willner would develop in his recordings as The Field (whose debut From Here We Go Sublime brought a great deal of attention to Kompakt upon it’s release in 2007).
For comparison, here’s the epically long, trance-inducing “Leave It” from The Field’s 2009 album Yesterday and Today, and the even longer, even more sparse “Untitled (#7)” from Pop. Just make sure you set aside, um, 25 minutes to listen to them both. Also, make sure to check out The Field’s new album Looping State of Mind, out now on Kompakt.
[audio https://theashtraysays.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/03-the-field-leave-it.mp3] [audio https://theashtraysays.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/gas-untitled-7.mp3]
the ashtray says 