- Jorg Burger rivals Wolfgang Voigt as the producer with the largest number of pseudonyms and projects (ambient techno as Triola, beatless ambient as Geometric Farms, electro-guitar pop as Trinkwasser and hard minimal as Pop Up, amongst others) but The Modernist remains his favoured moniker. Regardless of style, his productions glisten like the sunniest pop tune, helped by a fondness for guitars, chiming synth tones and voices shot through vocoders.
Thus it's not surprising to find his first mix CD titled ‘Popular Songs’, the premiere release on Stefan Struever's Collectors Series. Struever was responsible for the DJ Kicks compilations, and in Burger they have found a kindred spirit to continue their anything-goes enthusiasm. ‘Popular Songs’ recalls Erland Oye's jovial DJ Kicks set, with Burger gleefully following Oye's amusing 'DJ rules': keep them dancing, ensure it’s well ventilated, and make them think you're a rock star.
There's also a heavy dose of Superpitcher-inspired microgoth miserablism which, offset against Burger's delight in spit and polish, results in much revelling in heartbreak. The vocals appear on every track, but they're gasped, moaned or breathed through processors. Closer Musik's introduction to '1,2,3 (No Gravity)' starts things off, all heady atmosphere and expectation, before the chiseled beats of Mikkel Metal's 'Microho' are introduced, snatches of surf guitar washed beside a drowning vocal. Vocals appear on every cut, gasped moaned and effected to add further hints of troubled romance. Burger runs through a collection of favourites, er, popular classics and a few exclusives of his own: 'Freifeld' as Triola, a brief snatch of trademark Burger shudder; and the plucked guitar and female vocals of Autobianchi's 'Stay'. The Modernist's 'Protest Song' adds unpleasantly over-processed male voices to thickly sliced clangs, but 'Mushroom Angels', his mash-up of Superpitcher's 'Even Angels' and 'Mushroom', is glorious. Taking the best moments of each and piling on additional piano chords - a la 'Happiness' - Burger somehow manages to eclipse both tracks with this simple exercise.
Ada's 'Livedriver' is given the Burger treatment by B. Movement, subtly enhancing the original without overwhelming it; elsewhere Telepopmusik's 'Breathe' sends words through AM radio hiss to emerge wistful and yearning, and Erland Oye with Morgan Geist cuts through the dominant fog and static with sharp electro gestures, lamenting lost youth and singing about car crashes. Superpitcher's mix of Dntel's 'This Is The Dream of Evan and Chan' makes another - welcome and fitting - appearance, Repair provides two pleasingly hazy numbers, and Basic Channel's ‘Round Two’ gets remembered before the album closes, jarringly, with Scritti Politti's 'The Boom Boom Bap'.
Paradoxically for an album so united in mood there are some rough transitions, but that's a minor quibble where the chief concern is delivering quality songs. We'll assume it was mixed digitally as there is not a crease to be found, and digital perfection is more in line with The Modernist's futurist ethos. For a fine collection of Cologne inspired techno pop look no further.