- Cologne-based Daso Franke used to play in rock bands but made the (wise) switch to techno back in 2005. His tracks are characterised by big synth sounds in menacing key signatures. 'Daybreak', his debut for My Best Friend, was one of the label's highlights, a lengthy repetitive burner heavily indebted to New Order (his follow up 'Go Upstairs' was essentially the same track), and he's since appeared on Connaisseur, Session Deluxe and Boxer. For 'Night Express' he's teamed up with friend and relative newcomer Pawas Gupta to pay homage to European train travel (and by extension Kraftwerk) with three pulsing electro cuts for Florian Meindl and Oliver Koletzki's Flash Recordings label.
Like its namesake, 'TGV' is a sleek but heavy vehicle: built around glitzy synth trails and a shifty out-of-kilter bass pulse. Prog and trance make appearances, too, but they are pushed aside by the restless pummelling drums. 'Ice' on B1 refers to Germany's high-speed train and it's just as sexy, more straight-shooting but darker, with 303 tones and a nocturnal 'whoomp' dancing around frenetic woodblocks in a house of horrors. 'Bummelzug', which apparently means 'Very slow train' in German, is anything but, its bright dub chords shimmering in weepy Superpitcher-ian fashion around the requisite percussive thump. Fine minimal electro-house, all three fit for the floor.
TracklistA1 TGV
B1 Ice
B2 Bummelzug