Patrice Bäumel is a phenomena on Trapez. He has only released two records on the label, and has little to do with the minimal scene in Germany, but nevertheless has always managed to get a lot of people involved in his records. His releases have been hits on the floor and we see these two tracks in exactly the same tradition.
Patrice is resident in the Club 11 in Amsterdam and has a good production run at the moment. He has just finished two new records for Trapez. His coming record "Flow" provides on it´s a-side a cool mighty Chicago techno house track with grinding basslines, stuttering vocals and an overall old school touch. The track suites a hedonistic crowd, drag queens, glam rock new school rave people... house lovers, wild pitch fans, a techno crowd.... Well a track "too cool for this world" with occasional organ stabs, which Patrice seems to have chosen with a lot of empathy for the overall feeling of that track. Carefully dropping these stabs without any foreboding or announcement, this tracks shows great skill and control when it comes to the thrilling build-up-dynamic with seemingly few elements. A master at work!
"Cavern" on the b-side is the more crazy track with a strong new school touch. Maybe this will be the secret a-side of the record for some of us. "Cavern" works with psycho-acoustic microphone sounds which seems to linger in the background... waiting for their chance to pop up to the surface and show their ugly gnome faces. Short vocal stabs and a mighty percussive programming, provide the track with a stronger active rhythm. Melodic sequences slowly make their way into the track, never obtrusive... creating a special feel that has more goose skin effect than a "rave yourself to death" potential.
Flow is 100% a Patrice Bäumel record, since it´s magic lies in it´s simplicity and deepness.
Release date: 14 July 2008