- Apparat's Sascha Ring has long resisted the regimented 4/4 popular among his Berlin colleagues, content to thump out his own brand of lead-footed IDM. His latest 12" for his own Shitkatapult label hints at why this may be so, with Raz Ohara's thick-like-honey vocals suggesting that Ring's fondness lies more towards American R n' B than techno.
The original 'Hold On' pairs his favoured lurching skank with a dragging bass grind, his chorus 'Hold on to what you've got' invested with both sensual funk and yearning desperation by O'Hara's multi-tracked voice. It's a groovy number, sweeter and sweatier than we're used to and hopefully indicative of what's in store with his forthcoming 'Well' LP. 'Fractiles - Extended (Rave) Version' is less convincing, with throbbing arpeggios, dancing trance-blips and waves of feedback all pointing skywards while the drums stay glued to earth. Like Nathan Fake's soupier moments from 'Drowning...' it's fit only for extreme sports soundtracks or Red Bull commercials.
The 'Hold On' mixes take opposite approaches. Funkstorung's Chris de Luca vs. Phon.o shift the lot into overdrive, multiplying Ohara's voice into a histrionic wall-of-sound with synths grown so phat as to bounce off the page. Modeselektor meanwhile reduce everything to stuttered bits, the drums bled dry and the voice pitched down so many octaves as to resemble the dying groans of sewer creature. A vaguely interesting set of tracks, but hardly essential.
TracklistA1 Hold On - Chris de Luca vs. Phon.o (CLP) Miami Bitch Remix
A2 Hold On - Modeselektor Remix
B1 Fractales - Extended (Rave) Version
B2 Hold On - Original