More Than This

German house music producer Andre Hommen has claimed that this, his first album, will also be his last. If so, its a heck of a way to go out. Released on his own These Eyes label, its a cohesive and pleasing collection of tracks guaranteed to get dancefloors moving. Eins (One) opens the album with a low-tempo, laid-back groove, before Pantone ups the ante a little with pumping kicks, syncopated claps, soulful vocal snippets, and a synth line that sounds like falling water. The album really gets going with Mirror, a full-on banger featuring jerky stabs, rolling toms, and a tongue-in-cheek female vocal sample: Now Im alone in my own place/Do I really make that face?/Cant stop looking in the mirror. Crescendoing synths and a barely perceptible tinkling add texture as the track progresses. On side two, Current Issue is another floor-filling stomper with thick, funky bass, a chiming melody line, and an infectious, descending synth progression, and the roiling Arythm does exactly what it says on the tin with a powerful, pumping, aggressively polyrhythmic workout boasting a Latin-jazzy piano line. Waste Your Youth gets the second disc going with an old-school drum machine beat and retro repetitive sequencing before acidic squelches overwhelm the midrange. Emphase (Emphasis) drags the listener into a murky, twilight world with incessant toms, shuffling percussion, and droning, eerie pads that never let up. Cohesive tops a funky, metallic rhythm with spacy whooshes, clicking woodblocks, and another funky, Latinate piano loop; finally, the title track winds things down with languid, dubby loops reverberating into infinity over a soft but incessant kick. This is a great record, with a nice mixture of styles suitable for both peak time and sofa time. Hommen seems very young to be claiming that hell never make another album, but, of course, nothing precludes him from recording another under a different alias. But if, as he claims, hes said everything musically that he needed to say, hes done it in fine style. ~ John D. Buchanan