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Apologies to De La Soul, but today, five is the magic number. Dan Curtin’s “Lifeblood” marks the fifth artist album in Mobilee’s ever-growing catalogue. It also happens to be his ninth album, and his first full- length in three years, which we think is ample cause for celebration.
Beginning in the early ’90s, Curtin established an inimitable brand of machine soul on releases for Strictly Rhythm, Peacefrog, Sublime and many others, and he hasn’t slowed down since—including three recent singles for Mobilee and her sister label Leena, not to mention Curtin’s own acclaimed Metamorphic label, which continues to chart the deepest recesses of electronic dance music. ... Read More »A bona fide legend of Midwestern American techno, Curtin has never shied away from the album format, using the medium again and again as a vehicle for exploring ideas that don’t fit conveniently on the space of a 12”. Lifeblood is no different. Refreshingly varied and remarkably cohesive, it’s a welcome reminder of techno’s expressive potential.
Despite its roots in classic sounds, this is no throwback. It’s grounded in the here and now: drenched in funk, strengthened with silicon/analog alloys, and positively aglow with emotion. It spans 16 tracks: ten of them made with the dance floor in mind, plus short ambient sketches and two unexpected slow-burners to remind us of techno’s kinship with golden-era hip-hop. It’s an album that’s fine with being broken down and carted off in DJ bags, or spliced into a mixtape for your special someone—but it also rewards sustained, concentrated listening as a whole.
And what a varied whole it is. “Mirrors Reflecting” combines terse, hard-knuckled percussion with ethereal pads and sci-fi bleeps, suggestive of both ’90s Tokyo and ’00s Hamburg, and the perfect lead-in to the glistening bell tones and West Coast stomp of “I See Light.” “Other (Lost In You Mix)” drops insinuating vocals over a deeply satisfying house groove, with plunging chords and atonal detailing caught in a delicious push-and-pull.
At once brittle and buoyant, both “Tickets to Paris” and “Schlafwagen” are spooky and sexy in equal measure, all goose-bumps and flushed skin; “You Get What You Need” uses stabbing piano chords to achieve a similar effect, sensual and alien. With its layered synthesizers and soulful vocals, “Blast” opens up like a Detroit techno time capsule in which the contents have mutated in the intervening years. Stripping down and getting dirty, “Mr. Bean” swipes fat, clattery snares from reggaeton and smuggles them into Panorama Bar for a 10am set.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, “Perfect Affair” and “Can’t Say No” draw from sampled soul and spare rhythm tracks to create low-lit, downbeat bliss recalling Common or Slum Village at their sultriest. And the album is bookended in the slow-motion house of “Invisible Man in Drag” and “Breath,” which showcase Dan’s talents as a sculptor of intimate, ambiguous atmospheres.
Diverse? You bet. But more than that, it all holds together without ever repeating itself—a rarity for electronic albums. The form reflects Curtin’s own approach, dedicated to craft and open to possibility. As he puts it:
“It was recorded over a few months at my studio here in Berlin, but I never worked on it exclusively. I always had to start and stop to do other projects here and there. For the technical side, nothing really special: same old things we’ve been hearing about forever, and by old I also mean new. It’s just that everybody makes such a big story about technology, gear, technique, which bores me to death. On this album I used everything from modified drum machines from the ’70s to international collaborations through networking sites like Soundcloud where I never met the people I collaborated with in person, as in Can’t Say No,’ for example. I just used all the tools at hand, whether they be 30-year-old analog pieces or brand new internet-based methods. It’s all the same to me, just a means to an end!”
An end without end, however: Lifeblood, whose title speaks to the very essence of being, is all about circulation. The pulse is within you. « Read Less
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Album $9.99
