- Although being one of BPitch Control’s oldest members and most productive, err, producer, Paul Kalkbrenner always kept a low profile, never reaching the iconic status of label’s boss Ellen Allien or the relative success of label mates such as Smash TV, Sascha Funke or Tok Tok (their ‘Missy Queen’s Gonna Die’ with Soffy O. has got to be the label’s most instantly recognizable track, and one of electroclash’s sole highlights). After three albums for the Berlin-based label (‘Superimpose’, ‘Zeit’, and ‘Self’, all released between 2001 and 2004), Kalkbrenner is now back with ‘Reworks’, a collection of, well, reworks of some of his well-known or more obscure tracks. And, strangely enough, this could be his most coherent album to date.
Actually, it is the sequencing of the different remixes that makes all the difference. Compared to some other remixes compilations (Depeche Mode’s one from 2004 comes to mind), this one doesn’t feel like an unfortunate blend of disparate aesthetics. Opener ‘Steinbeisser (Wighnomy Brothers Remix)’ may be all about floating synths in a beatless sea, but it perfectly blends into Sascha Funke’s minimal and highly melodic reinterpretation of ‘Miles Away’. Kalkbrenner’s best track, ‘Gebrünn Gebrünn’, also makes a welcomed apparition, here as the Alexander Kowalksi version, who actually turns it into a pounding, technoïd monster. Only the dub version of ‘Gia 2000’ by Modeselektor is slowing down the overall mood, but Michael Mayer’s reform of ‘Feature Me’, with its elegiac pads, brings the entire package back on track.
As an introduction to Kalkbrenner’s oeuvre, or as a Who’s Who of the contemporary Berlin scene, you couldn’t find a better piece of work.
Tracklist1 Steinbeisser (Wighnomy Brothers Remix)
2 Miles Away (Sascha Funke Remix)
3 Page 1, 2, 3 (Agoria Remix)
4 Queer Fellow (Ellen Allien & Apparat Remix)
5 Press On (Joris Voorn Remix)
6 Gebrünn Gebrünn (Alexander Kowalski Remix)
7 Gia 2000 (Modeselektor Remix)
8 Feature Me (Michael Mayer Remix)
9 Der Berserker (Paul Kalkbrenner Remix)