Enigma EP vinyl

For whatever reason, Marcel Fengler does not yet enjoy the same international profile as his Berghain colleagues Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann. Hopefully, Enigma will help to change that situation, with Fengler showing diversity that his more purist peers lack. This is evident on "Rapture", where an insistent techno rhythm leans towards the loopy approach of the late 90s/early 00s. "Razkaz" is the most typically Ostgut track on Enigma, a dense, repetitive track based on granite beats and steel girder percussion, but woven between these somewhat austere elements is a playful ethno sample. The EP's title track delivers what we think is Fengler's finest moment to date: "Enigma" snakes and pulses fluidly with nods to electronic disco, but the eerie strings and those typically dense percussive drums give it the requisite dance floor rigidity. Caught somewhere between human spontaneity and machine-led precision, Marcel Fengler's latest release proves itself to be enigma wrapped up in a techno riddle.

Ben Sims, Rivet, Roberto Bosco, Alkalino, Edit Select, Richard Zepezauer (RZ-1)