- A lowkey German lifer turns in a surprising record of emotional and dramatic techno for Nous'klaer Audio.
- If you're familiar with Nous'klaer Audio's love of windswept melody and shapeshifting drum programming, Robert Dietz's EP last year wouldn't have been much of a surprise. But if you had followed any part of the German house legend's career, the record would've been a head-scratcher. Dietz started as a protege in Frankfurt's minimal scene, releasing on labels like Luciano's Cadenza and Steve Lawler's VIVa. More recently, he turned to the sort of eerie, haunted house DJs like Binh and Quest have popularised. But RIP To My Idea of You, with its dramatic trancey synths, was far away from the self-serious world of track ID hunters, showcasing a depth of emotion he hadn't toyed with before (this is a producer, after all, who has released under the moniker DJ Meme Generator). He returns to Nous'Klaer for another 12-inch that gets even deeper, touching on IDM and progressive house.
There are plenty of hummable melodies in Dietz's back catalogue (Exhibit A), but 3 Mirrors features some of his biggest. The arpeggio on "Farbpaletten" is as large as Mathew Jonson's "Marionette," and on both the title track and "Faberwinter" he builds dramatic progressive chord progressions that sound designed for big sound systems and bigger rooms. Alongside these larger-than-life melodies, 3 Mirrors sees Dietz swap out his typically understated kicks and snares. The loose funk of "Judas Goat" has hints of hardgroove, and he goes full IDM with the shapeshifting drum rolls on "Sudden Peace."
Versatile, emotional, theatrical—3 Mirrors, like RIP To My Idea of You, is Dietz in the throes of a mid-career renaissance. He's been making dance music for the better part of two decades, but these tracks sound like he's only just figured out how much emotion he can wring out of the grid.
Tracklist01. 3 Mirrors
02. Judas Goat
03. Farbpaletten
04. Fumblewinter
05. Sudden Peace