The cover photo for Berlin producer Moritz Friedrich’s album Mosaik depicts a scene that looks like a drug-addicted teenager’s messy bedroom. Picture a pile of junk littered with toy figures, a Casio keyboard taped to a shotgun handle, white Mickey Mouse gloves, glue, balloons, candles, and cables. The image is an apt metaphor for Siriusmo‘s manic energy and playful ideas. Mosaik bursts with dramatic mood shifts and youthful sturm und drang manifest as clubby techno, glitchy hip-hop, and whomping dubstep tracks. Taken as a whole, the album sounds like a house-party mixtape, as its multiple styles and genres are all crammed into a 57-minute presentation. But it’s not all an ADD mess, as Friedrich’s execution is sharp and challenging; the album is a rollercoaster ride where you can’t tell what’s around the next turn, but you know it’s probably exciting.
Opening with “High Together”—a number that evokes early Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers—we’re immediately thrust into freaky electro territory on CD-bonus track “Sirimande,” which sounds like drum & bass producer Jonny L’s hit “Piper” remade by lazer-house star Sinden. Friedrich makes club-friendly tracks that aren’t needlessly drawn out and adds a little late-20th-century nostalgia to the mix. Mosaik‘s best songs put a novel spin on ’90s IDM and dance palettes, whether it’s DJ Shadow-style scratch collages or wonky, arpeggiated electronica. Elsewhere, the coyly named “Bad Idea” mines the sample bin with abandon, while “Einmal in der Woche Schreien” (“Cry Once a Week”) is jubilant Italo house tinted with Friedrich’s deft sonic acrylics. Overall, Mosaik‘s many shards form a coherent but explosive picture.
