A record that showcases Qnete’s talent but one where more scope would have been welcomed.
From time to time an artist comes along who, due to a number of reasons, might have mass appeal. In electronic the idea of “mass appeal” is a little bit of an oxymoron, let’s say an artist who can appeal to a mass of machine music heads. A musician who can get a groove going, one who isn’t afraid to hammer out a hard line when necessary and has something of a signature style. The latter might be a stretch too fair for Qnete, Marvin Uhde prefers to duck and dive between a glut of genres, but the former two statements apply to the German.
After releases of smoother house and wonky techno on Lobster Thermin and 777 I expected the Qnete stock to rise with more 12”s, but 2017 has been quiet for the Bremen based machinist. Nevertheless, as we all know, electronic music doesn’t always do what you might expect and the musicians can be even less predictable.
The return to Drowned Records is marked by quite an unpredictable track, the wacky “Clapping The Soles of Your Feet.” Samples are cut, trimmed and snipped into an oblong collage of disparate shapes and sounds. From this cacophony comes a bruised beat, bulgy bassline and distant cowbell, all of which try and rein in a piece that simply refuses to sit down and eat its dinner, clean up its toys or play nicely. The flip sees Uhde remix his own work, the “Milkshake Mix”. The same samples return, scissored into some similar forms whilst drums are bolstered to add a little more rhythmic girth. The close calls on Ratlife and Schtum alumnus Liebniz to take on the title piece, and he makes a good go at it. Taking the track by the scruff, Liebniz hurls “Clapping The Soles of Your Feet” straight out the backdoor with a stern boot to its behind. The original is stripped and made march to a stark industrial beat. Those playful samples are forced back down, swallowed alongside a spoonful or two of motor oil to produce a gnarled and mechanized chant.
It can be a risky choice to center a 12” around one track, it can be even riskier to have the producer of the record remix his own work. Clapping The Soles of Your Feet shows Marvin Uhde’s more fun side, an experimental side and is on another spectrum to Grey City Anthem, a cruel and cunning banger from last year. Liebniz takes the original and runs it into new ground, unlike the “Milkshake Mix” which isn’t as daring. A record that showcases Qnete’s talent but one where more scope would have been welcomed.
Clapping The Soles of Your Feet is available on Drowned.
