Dj Koze - Seeing Aliens [Pampa]

DJ Koze exists both above and beyond club culture as we know it, his albums and remixes flying free of genres and trends, yet symbiotically woven into its very heart. Yes, he always abstracts and distorts the tenets of house, techno, hip hop, pop, psychedelia, exotica, amongst others, but he does so because he understands them. And when it comes to club-smashing tunes, he understands those tenets about as well as almost anyone else on Earth.

So he was able to create a lasting club tune like 2015’s “XTC” that is weird, contemplative, even disturbing, that had little to do with what was around at the time, yet still managed to get bodies moving and sweating far better than other far more obvious techno anthems. And so it is too for album ‘Knock Knock’, which melts a million genres and none into one, and can comfortably include ‘Seeing Aliens’.

‘Seeing Aliens’ is undeniably a banger, its bassline coiling itself around your body like a snake, its high drama strings, pianos and noise blasts all designed to release maximum pressure onto the crowd. But, again, it sounds like nothing else, and its dynamics and twists unfold over eight and a half minutes in ways that will perturb your mind each time, no matter how often you hear it.

Meanwhile, the exclusive B side track, “Nein König Nein” (“No King, No!”), is a little softer in appearance – less about sonic pressure, and more about hip-swinging syncopation. But it too tells strange fairytales in its peculiar, brain-tickling accumulation of details, and whilst you’ll hear archetypal sounds from the heart of house and disco in it, each of them become new and otherworldly.