[MDR]

Like much of the label owner’s recent artist album, the seventh release on Marcel Dettmann Records, composed by Norman Nodge, begins with the crackling, abstract noise and industrial undercurrents of “DNA.” This of course is hardly surprising; there is no one else among the Berghain stable whose being is so connected to the history of techno music, so hot-wired to its heritage as Dettmann or Nodge. You can see it in their chiseled, stark features, hear it in their blindingly purist sets and it practically oozes from the grooves of every record they release. That’s not to suggest either producer’s output is merely a carbon copy of the dominant narratives that preceded their own releases. With so many techno producers flirting with lower tempos and noisy textures, there is something very now about “DNA.”

On the other hand, “Convergence” sounds heavily inspired by ’90s techno; centered on grainy bass full of tonal blips and dense, titanium drums, it also boasts an insistent riff that evoke memories of Lil’ Louis. However, the slower tempo and skipping percussion remind the listener this is indeed a contemporary production. Nodge mines the past again on “Homology”; featuring a slinky yet insistent bass line that calls to mind Jeff Mills’ “In The Bush” over a stripped back house rhythm and nagging acid riffs, the end result sounds like Mills bringing his distinctive touch to Dan Bell’s back catalog. “Adaption,” on the other hand, seeks to connect the techno from the past that influences Nodge and his current environment. The eerie chords sound like Carl Craig at his most introspectively brilliant, and could be an outtake from a Psyche session; but the manner in which he presents it, against the backdrop of rolling, filtered house rhythms, tempered with a Martyn-like shuffle, shows that while Norman Nodge may draw on the past, he still lives in the present.