Celebrating, as the name indicates, the 100th release on the Cologne-based label,
Trapez 100 is a goes-down-smooth compilation of cuts from the label roster that reinvents no wheels but makes sure that they run as frictionlessly as possible. The gently seductive keyboard lines on Raw Hedroom's "Lauryn's Tokyo Bananas" provide as good a baseline experience for the disc as any (as well as a good bassline experience, at that). In terms of beats, it's all about polite but crisp takes on house and techno approaches that steer away from immediate pop anthemicism and toward the kind of cool evident not just from the label's own history, but that of imprints like Kompakt and Mille Plateaux, dancing with an air of restraint spiked with joy. Thus
Oliver Hacke's "Der Vampir von Dusseldorf," with its deep, echoed tones and bouncy riffs, finds a certain gleeful tension in the two sides at play. Perhaps the most full-on explosive track has in retrospect the most appropriate title -- "Ambivalent," by
Dominik Eulberg, seems like it wants to roar straight into a full life, and almost gets there in the buildup to the breakdown, but never without keeping a controlled air in the otherwise relentless, cyclical riffing. ~ Ned Raggett