- DJ Koze is a funny one. He doesn’t have much faith in techno (‘Techno can be the most boring and hateable music because it is so stupid and it is always the same’) but every now and then he puts out a techno track that is better than almost anything out there. Perhaps Koze’s boredom with the format is his best asset: it’s not hard to imagine him cackling away in the studio as he inserts his trademark “surprises” into tracks to screw with us (This is a man who travels the world with a CD of pre-recorded synth noise to insert into sets at will). His most successful surprise yet is surely that bit when the bass arrives in ‘Brutalga Square’: the track is techno music, but it’s really all about making the soundsystem suddenly quadruple in size halfway through. Next best is the unjustly overlooked (hard to mix?) ‘Don’t Feed the Cat’ from his album ‘Koze Comes Around’, which switches gears at the end and turns into - surprise! - strobelit mentalism with its tongue hanging out.
Now with ‘All the Time’ Koze has done it again, but this time the “surprise” is all about the scissors. The track itself is very 2007, it’s a bit deep house even, but what makes it great are the little slivers Koze snips out of it here and there: for the tiniest instant, clubbers are going to be startled by dead silence. It's a much more humble cut than ‘Brutalga Square’ or ‘Don’t Feed the Cat’, and it’s only five minutes long, but those little snips make it distinct enough to be essential.
On the B-side ‘Cicely’ is more of a cocktail sipper: downtempo but with ample space given to BIG studio whirrings and purrings to get you in the mood. Lazy Sunday afternoon stuff.
Overall, this is sick.
TracklistA All The Time
B Cicely