- Marcel Dettmann has become an essential artist over the past year or two with plenty of excellent releases on Ostgut-Ton and remixes for various other labels. His morose German techno has grabbed him plenty of attention, and all the while he's launched his own record label. As people in the UK and Ireland say when something is devoid of pretention (courtesy of an ingenious ad campaign by a hardware product, Ronseal), Marcel Dettmann Records "does exactly what it says on the tin". Except in this case it probably doesn't even say anything on the tin. Or come in a tin.
It's improbable then that the third release on Dettmann's label is by somebody with the fruity moniker Norman Nodge, improbable but true. Regardless, the music is impenetrably deep and serious. This is a fine release of heavily dubbed techno that is just begging to be played in dark faintly dangerous rooms with the lights turned out. The EP consists of a short intro track that verges on dubstep and two longer techno cuts. The first, 'NN 3.0', is built around a bass drum that's stretched out and submerged until it sounds like a looped howl of wind. Sinister chords perforate the gusts as a few cursory hi-hats and percussion elements break the tremendous gloom, but not too much.
Next up is 'NN 8.0', which is quicker and more overtly peaktime than 'NN 3.0'. Again the bass is cavernously deep, and again the track sounds like the elements harnessed into musical form, with wispy effects in the high end and wind rattled melody lines. This is techno at an extremely pure level, with no influences getting in or out. Once you can accept that it's a really excellent EP.
TracklistA1. NN 3.0 (Intro)
A2. NN 7.4
B. NN 8.0