- By all rights, 'Lunatic Fringe' should not work as well as it does. Stefan Goldmann cuts up an uncredited choir, drops a house beat under them, adds a synth, and calls it a day. A recipe for certain disaster then – especially considering the choir seems to be completely unaware of any other element in the track. But like Villalobos and Herbert, what begins as "awww, look what our quirky little friend has done," turns by track's end into "holy shit, look at what our quirky little friend has done."
It might be premature to put Goldmann on level with such restlessly inventive dance music luminaries, but his Innervisions earworm 'Sleepy Hollow' and beatless contribution to Richie Hawtin's DE9 | Transitions prove that something's going on with this guy that has nothing to do with what we've heard before.
'The Bribe' does sound very much like what we've heard before – it's essentially 'Sleepy Hollow' Pt. 2, in fact. That's not a bad thing. Goldmann unleashes an unholy synth riff that climbs upward and downward maniacally and it's soon joined by another line that mirrors it for a while before getting a mind of its own. In and around all of this? Vestiges of the choir from 'Lunatic Fringe' quietly pop up at odd intervals and what sounds like a strangled guitar plays a note or two before the bass drum extinguishes everything in its path. Hmm, maybe 'The Bribe' is the experimental one after all?
Either way, it's hard to care when the results are this good.
TracklistA Lunatic Fringe
B1 The Bribe
B2 Nothingface