Nearly 10 years on since his last solo LP, Berlin techno icon Marcel Dettmann arrives on Dekmantel with an expansive album captured in a flash of inspiration.

In many ways Fear Of Programming is a reflection on the artistic process – the critical hurdles one has to overcome, the constant strive for originality, the ability to capture inspiration in its pure moment of inception. Bar the closing title track (and we all know Marcel loves a surprise closing), these 13 tracks came together during a period in which our hirsute host was able to immerse himself in studio practice and set the intention to record an album’s worth of material every single day. From the resulting mass of work there were many options to choose from, and Fear Of Programming stood out as one of the most complete statements on Dettmann’s approach in the here and now.

Unconcerned with an overarching concept, it was the work in the studio which drove the musical direction. No labouring over knotty arrangements, no painstaking mix downs – just honest expression, a moment caught, a groove locked, a stroke of synth sent pirouetting over a cavernous bed of texture. The results are varied, and while you might well hear plenty of bruising machinations in line with the techno Dettmann has made his name on, there are plenty of other shades expressed across the album.

Ambient sojourns, beatless epics and angular electronica have equal footing with strident, floor-friendly workouts. Standout piece ‘Water’ offers an icy ballet of swinging minimal and drip-drop melodics fronted by Ryan Elliott on lesser-spotted vocal duties, urging, ‘give me a sign, just a little something to let me know that you’re mine’. It’s playful, but still underpinned with the sincerity that comes with Dettmann’s work.

Running on instinct, Dettmann presents an honest version of himself in the here and now, speaking through the sonics and not over-thinking the results. His decades of experience helming a thousand techno parties speak for themselves, while his evolution as a musical entity through collaboration and his own BAD MANNERS label demonstrate his appetite for change. Indeed, the working method which resulted in the album also spurred him on to create a live set beyond his well-established DJ practice. Without resorting to a conceited overhaul, Fear Of Programming opens up the idea of what Dettmann represents in the modern techno landscape. More

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The 2x12” sees the renowned selector and longtime Berghain resident in explorative form, combining compact experimental techno vignettes with writhing, dubby and distorted long- form dancefloor portals – as well as a stoned and unexpected turn into house territory. At 22 minutes over 6 tracks, Test-File is a series of sonic contrasts united by Dettmann’s uncanny intuition for patiently shifting, improvisational dance music. 3-minute opener “Test-File” bangs in with rapid fire kicks and tape-delayed electric zaps, reversing midway into a kind of electronic palindrome. The momentum is sustained on standout single “Ascending”, where an overdriven basswave surges through a tunnel of industrial noise. The EP then emerges into the arch, squishy house of “Autumn77”, filled with sirens, pads and sampled vox/laughter. The second vinyl returns initially to rhythmic experimentation with the 3-minute “Torch” lurching forward rattling and machine-like, interspersed by passages of groan and hiss. “Error (1st Take)” bubbles along dub-wise, tripping atmospherically though a haze of out-of-synch synth bursts. Closer “Metalloid” wraps it all up with a hypnotic, rubber band acid line and smudged 808s clavs. More

Rauch is a sonic interpretation of the work of photographer Friederike von Rauch, composed collaboratively by Berlin-based producers Felix K, Marcel Dettmann, Sa Pa and Simon Hoffmann. Arranged and mixed by Marcel Dettmann, the recording stands in dialogue with von Rauch’s architectural images of post-World War II European monasteries, including La Tourette by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis near Lyon, Roosenberg Abbey near Ghent and Maria Regina Martyrum in Berlin. The images were first exhibited together with the music on this LP as part of an installation for von Rauch’s solo show insgeheim (“in secret”), held at the Goethe-Institut Paris during the international Paris Photo art fair in November 2017. While the complimentary relationship between the sounds of Rauch (“smoke”) and the images exhibited in Paris invites interpretation, both can also be experienced as separate artistic entities. On the 42-minute-long LP, drones, modulating harmonic soundscapes and implied rhythms maintain an abstract emotional core while occasionally taking on vaporous, amorphous qualities. Similarly, von Rauch’s images – often borderline abstract in composition – resist being identified by location or spatial context. Nevertheless, they also hint at their spiritual origin. Rauch is part of an ongoing artistic collaboration between Marcel Dettmann and Friederike von Rauch, which includes 2011’s Ash installation and three photographic works for Dettmann releases on Ostgut Ton. More

Expertly paced, Dettmann II impresses especially with its carefully rising narrative. On first glance, as the album barrels into action with the particulate grit of "Throb" and "Ductil", Dettmann is in fine style. But to the careful listener, these tracks feel lightweight like they're built from aluminum instead of steel. Each tune's central theme is a bit more out there than usual, from the sheet metal racket of "Lightworks" to the house-hinting chorus of "Soar", which is every bit as majestic as its title implies. He offers up some top-notch ambient material as well, like the trippy "Shiver", or the ominous "Outback", which features contributions from Levon Vincent. Dettmann also reaches for a rare collaboration on his second album. Kindred spirit Emika lends her spectral gasps to "Seduction", which stays stunningly antiseptic even as it weaves her voice into its wire framework. With Dettmann II's stretch of tracks "Radar" and "Corridor", the album finally takes flight into full-on club mania, fist-pumping career-high material with all the subtlety of his old work molded up into a spiky banger. "Aim", which ends the record in lofty fashion, hints at a new direction for Dettmann, uncharacteristically melodic and even uplifting. Co-produced by René Pawlowitz, it bears the Shed touch but keeps it firmly in Dettmann's finely-honed world. The first track written for the album and the one that initiated the album sessions in the first place, it carefully hints at new directions while keeping its glance firmly in Dettmann's established history - which you could say for the album as a whole, gently moving towards new horizons but always keeping in mind what made Dettmann's past music so great in the first place. More

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