Obviously, broadcasting is an activity Dirk Rumpff has experience with. And it proves. His compilation for Sonar Kollektiv, the second in the series, nicely balances between new material from Sonar Kollektiv artists and other discoveries from across the audio spectrum. Most of us will know Dirk from his OFFtrack broadcasting activities. Some might have made the link through his RBMA activities or remember him as the man behind the Season production outfit or even as compiler of one the Fueled For the Future (box-set) instalments for Compost some years ago.

It all starts of gentle with the laid-back ‘Cottonwood’ from State River Widening duo David Sheppard and Keiron Phelan, before progressing into future soul territories on the “Other Side”, a track produced by Dirk alongside Florian Hartl blessed with the vocals by Mimi Terris. From there on it’s a handful of Sonar Kollektiv related artists dropping the electronic funk with new tracks from Soultourist (‘Play’ feat. Ovasoul7), Trickski (‘Maingirl’, with that peculiar mid-tempo groove building indefinitely) and Outlines! ‘How it Should Be Done’ is a confident drum heavy 808 feel hip hop bouncer taken from Irfane and Jerome’s forthcoming album “Our Lives Are Too Short”; it’s a hit with mainstream appeal, loose vocals and fairly accessible production, but still qualitative enough to be appreciated by average beyondyessirs. Another album taster comes from the Rednose Distrikt camp, here teaming up with Benny Sings. Now, you will less likely come across ‘Maaitiemaai’ on daytime radio, but then again with its distinctively raw production, ambiguous phrasing and a chorus that sticks on your lips like a tasty sweet liquorice, that’s probably not what Aardvarck and co are aiming for. More excellent daytime-radio-parrying production comes from the Troubleman that is Mark Pritchard alongsideSpacek; ‘Turn it On’, a monstrous track. Spaceship material with balls and SOUL! One of the most exciting collaborations of recent. If a full length will ever see the day of light, extra terrestrial invasion will happen!

Halfway through the tempo goes up, Dirk brings us to the club, and straight in we’re bouncing to ‘Gedaroom’ served up by Mantis Records’ hope in anxious times Clyde alongside Sonar Kollektiv’s MC pre-eminence Capitol A. Then we reach prime-time and go deep on the techy delicacy from Slope, who has with ‘Gemini’ lend an ear to the much favoured production styles of stable chums Ame, which can only be a good thing. Further down in the mix we get Yoruba flavours from across the Atlantic by Zoetic and Paul Randolph, more Slope, this time delivering a more characteristic production with Clara Hill on vocals, and Carl Borg mixing up Fat Freddy’s Drop ‘Del Fuego’ and touching deep by building on the powerful beauty of Joe Dukie’s voice. More touching beauty comes from Deyampert who features with an acoustic version of the classic ‘Held Him First’, 4 years later still sounding untouchable. This musical trip comes to a close with gentle new material from the Slapped Eyeballers and compelling composition and songwriter ship from London based multi-talent Bev Lee Harling. ‘Life Won’t Wait’, a girlfriends favourite.

So, if you haven’t bought a compilation in years, or rather make the selection yourself, then I, for once, advise you to make a wise exception, and get surprised, if not, at least inspired by the choice of Dirk Rumpff, a man who’s been making top selections for the past 8 years now. And with all the new material lined-up, clearly, Sonar Kollektiv fans won’t be disappointed either.


by Yiannis for beyondjazz.net