- To my ears Alex Under is at his strongest when he focuses on deeper and darker sounds. When he dabbles in more experimental rhythms and melodies, his music is less appealing. Last year’s Collage 12-inch was a good example of this Jekyll & Hyde musical personality: ‘El Encuentro’ was a monster of a dark techno number (and duly featuring in many a celeb mix), while ‘Fortuito’ was simultaneously more experimental, and less interesting for it.
Gris Anthemo, however, is textbook dark minimal techno all the way with both tracks invoking the aesthetic of Plastikman (an early inspiration to Under) in the best possible sense. The A-side ‘Gris’ starts off auspiciously with a glissando bassline keeping the simple 4/4 drum pattern chugging along nicely. So far so normal. Before long everything from shuffling snare drums to bells are introduced, but the hypnotic bass keeps everything in shape. The vocal sample two-thirds of the way in feels wrong, but it is short and doesn’t ruin things.
On the B-side, ‘Anthemo’ uses all of the fine elements, and spares us the dud, too. Starting in a near identical fashion, sans the bass, it builds up quickly to its peak and stays there for the next five minutes with only the subtlest of shifts in pattern occurring. Like all good minimal, neither of these tracks is about any specific part, but rather the combined effect. Overall then, ‘Anthemo’ is very effective indeed and no doubt it will be heard on a good few floors at about 5 a.m. during the winter months.
If your minimal techno flavour is the repetitive hypnotic variety, then this is as good as you will find about now. As for the rating, the 12-inch is one shonky vocal sample away from getting and extra .5, but still, an excellent release to round out 2007 for Señor Under.
TracklistA Gris
AA Anthemo