- For over 14 years Roger Reuter has swerved back and forth over the line dividing leftfield and traditional dance music, and lately he's veering far to the left. Following the German artist's first album as Roger 23 in 2015, he's joined the Zenker Brothers' Ilian Tape label to release Extended Play. The six-tracker finds Reuter still in the zoned-out headspace of his Mensch 001 LP, but now with some stranger techno and ambient inclinations. "Meister Zugmaschine" is essentially a seven-minute drum track with the reverb setting on max, which is as useless for the casual listener as it is potentially useful for an imaginative DJ.
That's an extreme case, however, as most of Extended Play is both listenable and useful. "Day 1" is a lovely piece of beatless synth music that billows and shimmers, and the pair of "Interlude" tracks at the end draw you deep into their spongy drones. At eight minutes long, "L o w. Reshape" doesn't do enough with its spacey cacophony to warrant the runtime. So the appeal to DJs rests with "Solitude," which it carries with confidence and style. This electro-slanted techno bouncer moves at a mellow pace, seemingly propped up by its loop of cavernous chords and beset by delicate percussion droplets. It's not a track to shout about from the rooftops, but it adds some welcome normalcy to the weird world of Extended Play.
TracklistA1 Day 1
A1 Solitude
A3 L o w. Reshape
B1 Meister Zugmaschine
B2 State IX Interlude III
B3 State IIX Interlude II