Mayer's last mix, Immer, is basically "shimmer" minus the injunction to be quiet. Now write your own review. No no, just kidding. Here's what I think: Hidden somewhere in the roam of Cologne is a tap. From which drizzles a steady stream of God's own music trapped at source by the Kompakt label. So constant and consistent is the supply of good music from Germany's second city, I can reasonably ("reasonably") entertain such ludicrous rationalizing ("delusional") fancy as the existence of such a tap. Tobias Thomas' Smallville, the Total series' 1 through 4, snippets of the Pop Ambients, and M. Mayer's debut mix Immer were all birthed there. And now this short masterpiece. Most of the songs mixed here go "shuffle shuffle blippity shuffle" (ummm, um yeah, that is an adequate description). Stomping and bomping straight outta Goldfrapp then, Mayer's chosen suppletech hangs on a sparse harnessing of some of the more exaggerated and obvious ideas from glam (the sway, the shuffle, the churning drums) silting subtly in the neat microhouse drifting. (Microhouse is, of course, house with all its fat sluiced and discarded. More lines, less mass.)
The first draft of this review started "Last night I dreamt I went to Colleen again" and proceeded to get boring from there. I was working towards answering this question: does Mayer's mix sit well as wallpaper? No, no it doesn't. Or rather, a better answer would be to tell you that the music pulls me out of myself, makes me (me!) think about dancing, and that whole messy technology of legs and heads and what-goes-where? The music holds, excites rather than calms, hangs half an inch short of you, then pounces and pulls, fingers, runs its hands through your hair, coolly exhaling a knuckle of smoke. Listening is almost an erotic experience! (Disclaimer: This may possibly all be wishful thinking spiced with gushy fanboy hope and gushy gushy fanboy fervor.)
In fact talking of smoke, has anyone ever told everyone how cool most of Kompakt's music is? Like classic cool as well as hipster cool? Possibly not. This may mean I'm a visionary. Although if they already have I guess I'm nothing but a smug idiot. Oh well, ho-hum. I'm a bit tired of ending my reviews with snappy bon mot resolutions. "So, this time, I'll ask a question which leads me out and starts you wondering: Who doesn't love the beautiful emotional ineloquence of the German female singing voice? See: Raumwohnung's "Ich Weiss Warum (T.Raumschmiere remix)" which is easily my favorite track here. "
Note: M. Mayer's "Peel Session" is not currently commercially available.
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