Various Artists Ellen Allien: My Parade
Ellen Allien’s notoriously long DJ sets are as sublime as her music; even whilst blending […]
Ellen Allien’s notoriously long DJ sets are as sublime as her music; even whilst blending styles from trance to techno, she favors expressive melodies and subtle beat-architecture. Here, the minimal techno/label goddess mixes current European house and techno (Step Time Orchestra, CJ Bolland) with Bpitch heavyweights, threaded by artfulness more than style. The mesmerizing, violin-sampled crackles of Modeselektor’s “Rave Anthem” segue into Apparat’s glassy, vocoded “Numb,” with dropped bass and synth burrs, just before one of her own best tracks, the deep-low, chilly “Dresden.” Quirk and nuance are her specialties, which is why Berlin’s crawling with Ellen groupies and imitators.