Therapy

Therapy

Peter Grummich [District of Corrupt...

28 September, 2007 | 1.44PM

• Section: Music Reviews
• Written by: Richard Brophy

Now here’s a surprise: years before minimal became an easy way for cheesy progressive house DJs to reinvent themselves as credible techno spinners, Peter Grummich was releasing rough, raw and fractured missives for labels like Shitkatapult and Sender.

Grummich’s 2005 album, ‘Switch off the Soap Opera’, is a master class in the grimier, more visceral end of minimal techno – a work that chased Basic Channel’s scuffled dub sound across a cider-fuelled warehouse party before pummelling it into submission.

So why has he now decided to follow rather than set trends and release an EP’s worth of deep house-influenced tracks?

Thankfully, it’s not as unquestioningly leeming-like as it might seem: for starters, Grummich’s musical point of reference is closer to Detroit than it is to New York, with the tracks featuring billowing, dramatic chord sequences rather than wishy-washy sax samples and polite, jazzy riffs.

Then there’s also the small matter of the backing tracks that the Berlin producer uses: the same spiky rhythms and staccato lo-fi drums that set Grummich’s work apart from everyone else are still present.

He might have changed tact, but thankfully, he hasn’t totally mellowed out.

• (0) Comments
• (427) Views
• Get 'Therapy' on Beatport