What is it: Droning Techno echoing through the cavernous halls of Berghain.
Who would play it: O/E | Jokke
When are you most likely to hear it: Opening up the night or marking a shift towards calmer waters.
Ostgut Ton’s favourite son, Kobosil made a fundamental statement on the label and the world of Techno with his debut LP last year, and it is very peculiar that it hadn’t found its way into our collection yet. We Grow You Decline, takes the industrial sonorities of Techno, and displaces them to the darker corners of ambience and the early hours of a club night. The liquid sound-design Kobosil employs here is nothing new to the artist’s palette and although we’ve heard it on the b-side of a EP’s like RK1 it comes together quite concisely for the first time in this album format.
There are moments like “The Living Ritual” that allow for a more energetic interpretation of a German dance floor, but for the most part Kobosil’s debut is far more open for an introspective listening experience. He allows for more atmosphere in his tracks than ever before and the odd functional beat rarely makes an appearance, Kobosil preferring a sinister thin droning aesthetic over everything else for the most part. The atmosphere is hardly ever thick and distant reverbs and sparkling synth modulations keep the whole album grounded in something far more subtle than the industralised Techno of his peers, showing a kind of maturity in his music that far exceeds the young Kobosil’s years. This slots quite nicely next to Juan Atkins, Moritz von Oswald and Transllusion.