Currently enjoying “Hello Mom!” by Modeselektor

The first album of three and counting from Berlin duo Modeselektor is sort of like a survey course of the high points of the recent history of electronic music. Numerous styles are explored throughout the album’s many twists and turns, and although the individual tracks stand on their own two feet, the album as a whole makes sense from the first beat to the last fade.

Tracks like “Die Clubnummer,” “Ziq Zaq” and “Vote or Die” betray an obvious Aphex Twin fandom, while tracks like “The Rapanthem” and “Hasir” weigh in as equally adept homages to hip hop, the latter having a particularly “world music” kind of feel. “Earth (UPS Edit)” challenges Venetian Snares more than anything else I’ve heard in recent years, while “Kill Bill Vol. 4″ is exactly the sort of uptempo banger that’s sure to draw the attention of anyone who’s ever made fun of a raver. “Silikon” is positively dancehall, and the opening track “Dancingbox” holds its own against the heavy glitchiness (or glitchy heaviness) of many of the more successful club acts who would soon follow (think Justice and the more recent Tiga and MSTRKRFT records).

I could easily go on, pointing out examples for every track that I’m sure a lot of people would be more than happy to reject as sounding less like this and more like that. Hell, I might as well go ahead and point out that “I Love You” closes the album in a very F.U.S.E. fashion, or that the album’s more minimal moments are reminiscent of fellow Berlin natives Basic Channel, if for no other reason than to prove that I’m cool enough to know who F.U.S.E. and Basic Channel are.

The most impressive thing that can said about this album is that despite the group’s flirtation with many different styles, the album doesn’t seem disjointed. There’s a unifying style that somehow bridges all these different tracks; the hooks are catchy, the common ground is clear, and a disc that could just as easily have sounded like a sampler proves itself to be a cohesive record. You can bet that I’ll be yammering on about Modeselektor’s second and third albums in this space before too long.

Posted in Currently Enjoying