Im Wandel der Zeit

A year after releasing the subtle ambient workout Premiere World on Profan, Cologne's Reinhard Voigt again reverts back to his own name for the completely different Im Wandel der Zeit. It's quite easily the most direct and bangin' release of the Kompakt label's first four years, full of noisy ornamentation and buoyantly abrasive rhythms and beats. More than anything, it's a throwback to early-'90s Cologne acid house. Ears more accustomed to the glistening sleekness of Kompakt or Force Tracks' tech-house productions will delight in only a handful of these nine selections, specifically the third, fourth, and ninth tracks. (Like all of Kompakt's preceding single-artist releases, none of the tracks have titles.) Tempering the drill-press effects, smacking four-to-the-floor rhythms, and insistently tinny clinkings that riddle the remainder of the record, these three tracks rely more on the type of textures and generally subtle nature that Kompakt is most known for. It's not that the other six are completely alienating, completely pulverizing, or a major challenge to the listener — they're hardly on the difficult level heard on Voigt's productions as Sweet Reinhard or Pentax. Still, you might have to find their good qualities more frequently than they find you.