- "Genau" is the most banal German conversational utterance, meaning "exactly." (As in: "So, you didn't get into Berghain?" "Genau.") In putting it next to "house"—the tick-tock soundtrack to life in the German capital—recent Berlin transplant Anastasia Vtorova seems to be saying something about the banality of the music. Genau House is the Russian producer's first proper dance record, following an EP of more experimental loop pieces for Peder Mannerfelt's label. But hers is dance music with a critical edge, as hinted at in its numbing, slow-mo repetitions and Vtorova's seductive, sarcastic vocals. Which isn't to say it's a parody. Like any new arrival sucked in by the big city, Machine Woman gives in to the 4/4 thud even as she looks askance at it. Genau House's two originals perfectly capture the loneliness and wormhole-like allure of a weekend spent in a club because you've got nowhere else to be.
Musically, Vtorova's transformation isn't huge: she was already working with late-night moods and hypnotic repetition. On "I Can Mend Your Broken Heart" (inspired by "unsuccessful Tinder dates"), she simply sits her ideas on a 4/4 kick. Dub chords lap gently against the beat, which gradually accrues and sheds layers of percussion, while the producer's half-whispered vocals lurk somewhere in the darkness. "Friday Night" is more sinister. Vtorova's voice is pitched down to a corpulent moan ("I like to dance… I like to dance… all alone"), and the beat throbs and churns with a harder technoid momentum.
"I Can Mend Your Broken Heart" proves perfect fodder for Kassem Mosse, who has been known to explore similar slow tempos and zonked moods. His excellent remix brings out the tenderness in its titular promise, slicing and scattering Vtorova's vocal over a gentle halftime pulse. The original's dub chords and light daubs of melody are carefully juggled over a hypnotic, sprawling ten minutes. Suddenly the big city doesn't seem like such a lonely place after all.
TracklistA1 I Can Mend Your Broken Heart
B1 Friday Night
B2 I Can Mend Your Broken Heart (Kassem Mosse Remix)