- More than anyone else on the Ostgut Ton roster, Marcel Fengler has come into bloom before our eyes. After the grizzly bacchanalia of his first two singles, he started burrowing into the densely looped, knotty aesthetic with Twisted Bleach. While that EP lacked a certain clarity of purpose, each successive release has sharpened its focus. And on the Frantic EP, his blade has truly reached its diamond-cutting potential: no longer the "dark horse" of Ostgut Ton, as RA's Andrew Ryce put it a few years back, Fengler here presents his most assuredly inventive tracks yet.
"Frantic" sounds like the track Fengler's had his ears set on for at least the last couple of years: impossibly dense considering how hard each of its elements hit, the track is a wonder of timbral balance and crafty sound design. (Considering how neatly these myriad key stabs, hi-hats and countermelodies slot together, you'd think Fengler was a closet reorganizer, not a globetrotting Berghain resident.) The next two cuts, however, show Fengler gazing toward his future. "6 in a Row" shows a less wildly rhythmic side of Fengler, but amidst a neon swirl of big-room synths, that directness makes for quite a powerful build. "Mosaique," though, really comes out of left field: airy and dare-I-say tenderly melodic, it sounds a bit like Robert Hood releasing on Macro, with that manic energy occasionally leaping out from the underbrush with a playfully menacing hiss.
Tracklist A Frantic
B1 6 In A Row
B2 Mosaique