Anyone want to hazard a guess as to which indie rock bands Andi Teichmann was listening to while composing his debut album? Fades is a rather pleasant outing from Teichmann and it’s also an attempt to bridge the gap between indie rock and techno. Like a lot of producers making techno today, Teichmann started his career in a punk band as a teenager. “They Don’t Care” is the first song on the record to make the combination explicit, pitting a wildly oscillating bass line against an acoustic guitar and vocals. But while the two songs that sound like a house Death Cab end up working nicely, it’s the songs that combine the compositional ideas behind rock without resorting to the use of the instruments that work the best: “Alias,” “Nicoff,” and “Aether” all shine on an album filled with moderate highlights, but nothing exceptional.

Festplatten / FEST 30/CD02
[Todd Burns]