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From Einsturzende Neubauten to Serge Gainsbourg and back around to his more regular galactic missions with The Orb, Thomas Fehlmann has certainly collaborated far, wide and often. Currently on another solo trip, Fehlmann here waxes non-lyrically over a dense matrix of highly hypnotic low-end dub; both influenced by, and reminiscent of, Basic Channel's seminal electronic flavours. That is, big bass rumblings overlaid with more clicks and cuts than Pole slicing apart an army of micro-processors with a set of twitching blades. Even more impressive than those infectious rhythms however is that ever-present introspective undercurrent running through these thirteen instrumentals, like an endlessly dripping tap. 'Lowflow' does loosen its grip somewhere towards the end, but for a spell Fehlmann's bass-obsessed magic weaves patterns that make for compulsive listening.

Ian Fletcher
February-April 2005

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