Animals

Malm, Sweden's Minilogue (Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson) present Animals, their debut full-length release for Sven Vth's Cocoon. Nowadays, electronic producers tend to retreat into their special stylistic niche - Minilogue dare to draw the bigger picture. After releasing outstanding productions on such renowned labels as Traum, Crosstown Rebels and Wagon Repair, this opus magnum covers a wide spectrum of music, reaching from peak-time techno to beatless deep ambient. The full range of Minilogue's vision of electronic music is developed on a double CD - one devoted to dance music, the other devoted to ambient, while the vinyl version naturally focuses on the dance tracks. The immediacy of the club tracks incorporate the elegance and simplicity of classic early '90s techno, the economy and lightness of the minimal sound and the sweetness and charm of their recent developments. This is a journey to be listened to from beginning to end, mixed in a seamless flow. As Son Kite and Trimatic, Mullaert and Henriksson became very successful in the trance scene, playing enthusiastically-received live sets all over the world. with Minilogue, they leave the boundaries of that genre - and actually of any genre. The result couldn't be more striking: The dance tracks are powerful and humble, the ambient tracks are subtle and bold. While other producers tend to get lost in layers of sounds and reverb, Animals is spring-loaded and nimble. Tracks so humble, effective and elegant, they stream unremittingly into the listener's ears. The music stretches out towards the horizon in a gesture of unmitigated desire: A desire for wideness, a desire for sound, a desire for the elementary beauty of techno.