Music as soundtrack for living
Richard Diaz | 06/05/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"99% of the music out there wants you to dance, or move, or feel. Some provide energy, others imagery, the more experimental of the lot require your complete attention. Then there are releases like Jorg Burger a.k.a. The Modernist, and his new album, jokingly titled Explosion. It offers a minimal but lively soundtrack for going about your daily routine: doing your chores, cleaning the house, or working in the office.Which is not to say the thirteen tracks here are bland. There's a good dose of melody and texture through the (mostly identical) songs, but The Modernist is just not interested in disrupting your business by offering catchy hooks. Try as you might, after any two songs you'll be moving your head but reaching for a magazine. Reviewing the tracks separately is futile, as they are slight variations of each other. All have repetitious, friendly beats, rely on deep keyboard loops, and a sprinkle of catchy sounds. "Header" has a nice crystalline layer on top, "Alphatier Brian" a darker bassline, and "Manson Soup" an acoustic guitar and crowd murmur- serving notice the disc's halfway through more than anything else. At thirteen songs the album goes long, but nothing here is disagreeable or makes you reach for the skip button.Oddly enough, most songs end abruptly; perhaps Burger realized than a continuous mix would blur out the already tenuous line of originality between them. He's content to offer a comforting layer of repetitious, minimal house music for busy listeners. Your tasks now completed a bit faster, you can pop in something else and have some fun."