In a world in which Germany is spawning techno producers and affiliated sub-genres on a daily basis yet seems so jaded it now has to throw hyper-exclusive parties in the back rooms of the capital’s shawarma shops to get any traction, do we really have time for another middle-of-the-road artist with no actual flaw but with no particular flair nor panache either, i.e. Gregor Tresher and his first official long player A Thousand Nights? I mean, sure, 'Open the Gates' sounded nice and trance-ish and captivating and all a year ago, but did you really take that one home with ya and make it a permanent fixture? Really? Yeah, neither did I.
To be perfectly honest, though, even if he is occupying what is fair to say a slightly peripheral position next to Germany’s main techno players such as Sven Väth, the Get Physical crew or La Villalobos, Tresher could actually be one of the most multifaceted and federative underground producers Germany generated in recent years. For instance, his first releases for the Datapunk imprint or tracks for Cocoon such as 'Full Range Madness' share Anthony Rother’s dystopian vision of what gritty electro should sound like, his remix of Väth vs Rother’s 'Komm' leans towards the more relentless side of techno, and his main productions for Great Stuff such as 'The Now People' and 'Battery' (both included here) have a definite underground electronic house shine with minimal inclinations. Actually, Tresher’s understated permeability could be a force to reckon with on any respectable dancefloor: he stands at the nexus of Martin Eyerer-produced electro-house and post-Holden neo-trance à la Stephan Bodzin (after all, he did collaborate with Guy Gerber, and it definitely shows on the album’s title track), minimal ('Benthos') and deeper shades of house (the serene album closer 'The Good Life'). A Thousand Nights succeeds, weirdly enough, at being repetitive and limited in its palette (Tresher sure knows how to beat to death the same melodic pattern for several minutes), yet it's also fascinatingly wide-ranging. And when Tresher dares to switch it up a notch and get all intense on us, like on the aforementioned 'Full Range Madness' and the nine-minute epic 'Anti', you end up feeling he truly deserves the “Best Producer” and “Best Newcomer” accolades he got in 2006.
OK, this is obviously not a masterpiece, and I don’t see how this could soundtrack a thousand of your nights, but it's a decent first album, and it will surely do the trick for at least a season of shawarma-fueled hedonism.
To be perfectly honest, though, even if he is occupying what is fair to say a slightly peripheral position next to Germany’s main techno players such as Sven Väth, the Get Physical crew or La Villalobos, Tresher could actually be one of the most multifaceted and federative underground producers Germany generated in recent years. For instance, his first releases for the Datapunk imprint or tracks for Cocoon such as 'Full Range Madness' share Anthony Rother’s dystopian vision of what gritty electro should sound like, his remix of Väth vs Rother’s 'Komm' leans towards the more relentless side of techno, and his main productions for Great Stuff such as 'The Now People' and 'Battery' (both included here) have a definite underground electronic house shine with minimal inclinations. Actually, Tresher’s understated permeability could be a force to reckon with on any respectable dancefloor: he stands at the nexus of Martin Eyerer-produced electro-house and post-Holden neo-trance à la Stephan Bodzin (after all, he did collaborate with Guy Gerber, and it definitely shows on the album’s title track), minimal ('Benthos') and deeper shades of house (the serene album closer 'The Good Life'). A Thousand Nights succeeds, weirdly enough, at being repetitive and limited in its palette (Tresher sure knows how to beat to death the same melodic pattern for several minutes), yet it's also fascinatingly wide-ranging. And when Tresher dares to switch it up a notch and get all intense on us, like on the aforementioned 'Full Range Madness' and the nine-minute epic 'Anti', you end up feeling he truly deserves the “Best Producer” and “Best Newcomer” accolades he got in 2006.
OK, this is obviously not a masterpiece, and I don’t see how this could soundtrack a thousand of your nights, but it's a decent first album, and it will surely do the trick for at least a season of shawarma-fueled hedonism.
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Published /
Wed / 31 Oct 2007 -
Words /
Stéphane Girard -
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Tracklist /
01 Black Rain
02 Running Systems
03 A Thousand Nights
04 Syncopia
05 Painkiller
06 Full Range Madness
07 Anti
08 Benthos
09 The Now People
10 Battery
11 The Good Life
Amsterdam
Zurich
Frankfurt
All
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