Alex Under – Collage

AA side has some technical shuffly techno but this is all about the A - El encuentro, a deep hypnotic beast that turns dancefloors into washing machines.

I heard Alex Under's track "El Encuentro" on M. A. N. D. Y.'s 2006 "At The Controls" double CD mixed compilation on Resist Music, and instantly decided to purchase the EP. While the mix itself was soon enough forgotten as far as I'm concerned, it will however be ed for drawing my attention to this talented producer.

What can I say here...? Plus 8 Records Ltd. has hardly ever made a mistake, and this is no different. In this plague of samey minimal and subtle releases, Alex Under does the impossible and makes his 12" stand out from the bunch. The first track has an unmistakeable melody, coupled with soft and steady percussion making its way from the background, but the emphasis is always on the musicality here. Long and repetitive, but by the third minute you won't even notice it, as you'll be too busy staring at the whiteness of your bedroom wall. Mmmmmmm, tasty.
We move onto the second track, "Fortuito", which starts on the minimal side of things as well, but slowly sounds and fragments of tiny layers will arouse until the mother of all groovy melodies hits you with the 03:10 mark. From then on, you're back to the briefly interrupted hypnotic state of mind.
On the flip side, we have "Distantes", the last and the shortest track on this EP. It's more up-beat than the previous two numbers, but it doesn't deviate too much from the minimal niche. And it faithfully follows the formula already displayed on the other two tracks: starts with the basic drum kick and accompanying bass line, slowly builds up with some typical klik-klak/plik-plok sounds until a gorgeous melody sweeps me off my feet a little after the 4 minute mark. Argh, by this time I'm either falling in love with the wall or just getting plain pissed off 'cause the EP is about to finish. What? Only three tracks? Yup, but it's three numbers I could play any time of the day and still feel like I've just hit the lottery. Probably too early to label this a classic, but the essential sticker is well earned here. Get it.

Fortuito, The first track on the B Side, makes this 12" indispensible. Absolutely killer track. It begins with two minutes of filtering different bass drum aspects never letting you know where the true kick drum is gradually trailing all three off into space before breaking into a dubby, funky monster of a track. Sick stuff.