benisch & mull - shadows

peter benisch has been part of the swedish techno scene from the early 90's where his classic training helped out for those melodic and atmospheric but intense productions. after that he sort of removed himself a bit to concentrate on more downtempo material but he was still a part of the scene. his friendship with dahlbäck, lekebusch, beyer and mull resulted in some collaborations either in their own names or in shared billing.

for mull's imprint "inside" benisch was part of two releases called "phases" & "silhouettes" at the early noughts with adam beyer and also joel mull respectively. the collaboration with beyer came around as benisch helped out on a few productions and remixes but it always had a distinct sound. beyer's usual rhythmic backdrop and benisch's melodic elements and considering beyer's tightly compressed drumloop-driven techno, it was a nice marriage.

but for the collaboration with joel mull it was a whole different set of rules since mull also infused more deeper & housier elements into his productions. i am aware that beyer had his housey/melodic outing as conceiled project but that has nothing to do with benisch so it's irrelevant to this story. what is interesting with this release is that the techno tracks ("luminosity, "contrast" & "opacity") has that moody melodic tone coupled together with a deep bassline and throbbing rhythm. for the first two it's sounds like good trance music on the progressive end where as "opacity" is bit more balls to the walls techno.

however the track from i'm highlighting from this photography themed ep is called "shadows" and takes of the four on the floor for a breakbeat backing and is very electro. which brings to mind benisch's fpu project which was kicking about in the same time and i really enjoyed some of those tracks & remixes. it is a bit on a different styling as this has a bit of a rooting within techno and doesn't indulge completely in 80's nostalgia as the fpu songs tend to be.

a breakbeat leads the way and the dark mood is set as you hear dark pads and fragments creep up together with the buzzing atmosphere. benisch also provides a bit of spoken vocoder is worked in and at first this feels eerie but this changes after a while. as soon as the mull's & benisch's melodies become a mainstay in the middle of the track it turns from dark to moody and i enjoy this switch. it is a remarkable track and comes from a great ep that shows a great deal of versatility from benisch & mull.

listen here (youtube)