Kompakt Total 9

2008年でレーベル設立15周年を迎えた、ドイツ・テクノ・レーベル最高峰“KOMPAKT”が年に1度リリースする大人気コンピ『TOTAL』2008年版！今後のテクノ・トレンドを知る上でも世界中のテクノ・ファンが注目する今作には、“KOMPAKT”を代表するクリエイターがレーベルのアニバーサリー・イヤーに相応しいブランニュー・トラック、ヒット・トラックを惜しみなく提供！初CD化音源も満載の超高品質コンピレーション!!

"By renaming Delirium into Kompakt in the beginning of 1998, it was possible to manage the problem with the confusing jungle of names, logos, store, labels, etc." Part of an early Kompakt communiqué, this statement is ironic ten years later. By 2008, Cologne's premier techno outlet had expanded to house nine active and dormant sublabels. Releases from three of the subsidiaries -- Kompakt Extra, Kompakt Pop, and Kompakt Extra (aka Speicher), all with their own perceptible but intermittently vague aesthetic -- play a role in the ninth Total compilation, the fourth consecutive volume of the series to contain two discs. Given all this content sprouting from one source with several nodes, it's hard to imagine that Kompakt once licensed tracks from other labels to fill out their annual overviews. Now, from year to year, there is an abundance of previously released, exclusive, and upcoming material to showcase in the series. The CD version of Total 9 features four previously issued tracks from Kompakt proper, four from K2, three from Kompakt Extra, and one from Kompakt Pop. The remaining nine are either exclusive or a preview of an upcoming vinyl release. Tie it all together and, as with the other double-disc Totals, a few highlights are immediately perceptible while very few (if any) come across as poor. Many tracks, despite the execution, lack distinctive qualities. Across two discs, they're converted into one flatland of like-layered, likeminded productions of the not-quite-trance, not-quite-house, upbeat-but-not-quite-gleaming-or-euphoric variety. More than ever, then, the Total series resembles a buffet of DJ tools rather than a neatly bundled set aimed at home listening -- or, maybe that is the perception since there is less development, less change, in the sound of the average Kompakt release. So much of Total 9 sounds familiar, even if the previously released tracks are being heard for the first time. There are, as ever, some real standouts, including DJ Koze's "Zouzou" (an endlessly roiling cyber-tribal flagellator, as awing as his "Brutalga Square"), Matias Aguayo's "Minimal" (inexplicably taut, almost all percussion, and not lacking for its absence of bottom, if not as spectacular as Koze's disco remix), Burger/Voigt's "Wand Aus Klang" (gorgeous, pastoral techno-folk), and Partial Arts' "Telescope" (a dazzling tune that has more in common with peppy dance-oriented synth pop like Thompson Twins' "Beach Culture" than anything else). ~ Andy Kellman|

すっかりお馴染みとなったコンパクトの名物コンピ第9弾。毎回ハズさない定番シリーズだけに今回も安心して聴ける内容になっている。レーベルを代表するアーティストのヒットを惜し気もなく収め、DJコーツェの“Zouzou”などエクスクルーシヴも収録。幻想的で美しいトラックからフロアで破壊力を発揮するディスコ・ミニマルまで、いまのテクノ・シーンを象徴するような楽曲のオンパレード。これは一家に一枚である。　　
bounce (C)石井 隆弘