Barnt - Magazine 13

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  • There's something to be said for the similarity between techno aesthetics and generic "no name" brands. Think about the white label phenomenon that swept the genre a few years ago—the music was supposedly at its purest when presented in a utilitarian form. Barnt's debut album, titled simply after its catalogue number, has a similar whiff of slightly pretentious unpretentiousness. But it's more than just the name. Daniel Ansorge's music has been moving in that direction for a while now. Comparing it to Bauhaus architecture himself, he tends to make songs out of bare, almost untouched sounds ("there are no ornaments," he says), and it's his knack for putting them together that cinches it. But where the just-released His Name 12-inch on Hinge Finger turns those minimalist sounds into peak-time weaponry, Magazine 13 stretches them a bit too thin. The album's opening one-two punch hits the sweet spot, with the jumpy kick drums and noodling melodies of "Wiggett: So we know that hexog****" and the psychedelic splatter of "22:25," whose frantic MIDI harpsichords make it sound like a big-tent-circus overture. They're both seductively strange, fun and just the right length. But from there, Magazine 13 loses focus. "How do I know what solutions x form?" lazily layers long sustained tones like a child playing with an organ, while "Cherry Red" just plods along, occasionally repeating the same dramatic synth line as if to remind us what track we're listening to. There are moments of joy in a track like "Cherry Red," though, especially when it slips into a neat krautrock chug. You could say the same for the 15-minute closer, "All the alts I'mm holding are hurting," which has an appealing gothic chill, even if it can't quite decide where it's going. Over and over on Magazine 13, Ansorge's unique approach shows strengths as well as weaknesses. His style of drum programming, where every sound is drawn out and every snare or hi-hat savoured, is captivating in its bluntness, but it's so plain that it can't hold up over the duration of a full-length. As the title suggests, Magazine 13 doesn't feel like a coherent album so much as a more open-ended platform for the same thing we get on his 12-inches. Judging from the strength of that recent Hinge Finger record, maybe that format works better for Barnt's ever-weirder club music.
  • Tracklist
      01. Wiggett: So we know that hexog**** 02. 22:25 03. Blame A Hill 04. Cherry Red 05. 0221 51025XX 06. How do I know what solutions x form? 07. 1/1 08. All the alts I'mm holding are hurting.
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