Pitchfork

The man Pitchfork's Tim Finney once called "Germany's most cheerful house producer" changes things up again a bit here, sounding at once less cheerful and less conventionally house. Listening again to Justus Köhncke's 2005 album for Kompakt, the vocal-pop-oriented Doppelleben, it's easy to hear electro-pop's recent Balearic strain in lovesick ditties like "Wo Bist Du?", or the ongoing disco revival in Moroder-synthed bangers like "Timecode (Edit)". Released as a 12" from forthcoming follow-up album Safe and Sound, "Feuerland" is darker and more reliant on clanging motorik guitar, along with sepulchral synth peals and a bubbly beat that never quite breaks into full-on 4x4 house mode. It also happens to be a cover of a track by ex-Neu!, ex-Kraftwerk and current Harmonia member Michael Rother; "Feuerland" originally appeared on the Hamburg-born multi-instrumentalist's 1977 solo debut, Flammende Herzen. Although Köhncke ups the intensity level a bit, he mostly keeps the original's fiery desolation intact, with the biggest difference evident in the 21st-century, digital percussion.