New-guy Ausstieg Left gets all over Modeselektor’s ‘Monkeytown’ album our on Monkeytown Records.

Modeselektor has been around for quite a while now; a key part of the emerging Berlin music scene in the aftermath of the infamous wall coming down in the early 90s, and in recent times the group has been at the forefront of the experimental bass scene. Monkeytown is their third LP, released on Modeselektor’s own label, the namesake of the album. With collaborators like Thom York of Radiohead fame and this being an exciting time for the genre, Monkeytown has a lot of promise, and I’m pleased to say that it largely lives up to this precedent.

The album starts with some seriously clouty beats. Blue Clouds is a driving, typically ‘Berlin-beat’ style dubsteppy tune, with a faster tempo than you might expect, and beautiful sample layering and composition. It seriously impressed me on first listen, and really shows that a lot can be done within the dubstep mould.

The rest of the album is a fantastic journey through electronic hip hop and ambient sounds. Some of the vocal contributions leave a little to be desired; I wasn’t a huge fan of the rapping on Pretentious Friends, nor was I fully convinced by the Anti Pop Consortium collaboration in ‘Humanized’. The instrumentals of these tracks is great though, and it’s merely my personal preference that I’m not a huge fan of overbearing featured vocals.

It would be impossible to review the album without discussing Thom York’s input. It’s well known that York is a big fan and long time friend of the Modeselektor guys, so it’s not surprising that he’s a featured vocalist on Monkeytown, as he was on 2007’s ‘Happy Birthday’. Both tracks he features on, ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘This’ are unmistakably German sounding, which works well with York’s falsetto, and Shipwreck in particular uses a really nice drum sample. I wouldn’t be surprised if the venerable Siriusmo had something to do with this, as he’s listed as a collaborator on the album and is known to be a bit of a drum sampling nerd.

Evil Twin is a rampage to listen to. If you’re in the right mood, it’s so spot on, and I can imagine it’ll be a favourite amongst techno DJs and connoisseurs. German Clap has a similar club vibe, although again it’s pretty brash, and not one for a quiet night in or journey home after a long day pushing pencils.

The absolute stand out track for me is ‘Berlin’. Slap bang in the middle of the album, I keep coming back to it again and again. It’s beautifully poised, has some killer playful rhythms and has some great vocals by Miss Platnum. Grillwalker comes at a close second. Both play to Modeselektor’s strengths in terms of sound design, and have lovely fizzy analog bass synth lines.

The end of the album hits on a more ambient feel, War Cry in particular being a very heavily textured and interesting piece of music. I visited Berlin over the summer, and you can totally feel the vibe of the city glowing through the whole LP. It’s hard to put your finger on what makes it so quintessentially Germanic, but it’s arguably their most complete release to date, and I found it a much easier listen than the often rough earlier albums.

So, overall, well worth at least a listen, and if you can try and pick it up on CD or vinyl as it has some great album artwork too. It’s out now at all good music stores.

Modeselektor “Monkeytown” (MONKEYTOWN015) OUT BETWEEN SEP27-OCT04 by Modeselektor