ma2 (2x120/00)

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Enticing obscurities from foreign shores wash up with each weekly new-release wave. Many would have been best left stranded at sea. But occasionally a real treasure finds its way across the ocean and makes the sifting worth the while. Little information attends the arrival of ma2, not even a country of origin, though some probing has revealed Ostinato as two German musicians, Christian Meys and Stefan Mueller. More importantly, the heavy, pristine vinyl allows their music to speak for itself. And speak it does, with a recognizably German amalgamation of edgy techno, particularly vivid synthwork, experimental texturology and seriously disrupted beats. Each of the four tracks stands out as unique, even if the muscular 'Bruch0/00' and sprightly 'Fuehler0/00' throw off flashes of Mouse on Mars and To Rococo Rot's dizzy digidub inversions and 'ma 20/00' surges forward on skipping rhythms as forceful and jagged as anything found in Thomas Brinkmann's repertoire. The instantly brilliant 'Kreisel0/00' sparks like a Catherine wheel, ignited by a pistoning bassline and flintlock percussion into a flowering display of Teutonic post-rock and future-dub laced with technosoul. If excellent records like this one are any indication, the excitement in German electronic music hasn't even peaked yet! We're still experiencing the up-surge, unlikely as it might seem, with no slacking-off in sight. Wow.