Kassem Mosse – Workshop 19
It’s impressive to think that since he first emerged as Kassem Mosse in 2006, Gunnar Wendel’s work under the name really hasn’t changed all that much. His music may vary wildly in tempo, and some may veer closer to full-on techno while others may be more self-consciously house, but his productions are unmistakably dense. While his music may not be as intricate as that of Actress, as filled with the same kind of unrestrained joy as that of Omar S, or as classically deep as Theo Parrish, he’s a producer equally as respected as any of those figures. Like them, and a select few others, Wendel is proof that in a business where many lesser artists are willing to switch styles to pander to an easily bored public and press, a well-honed aesthetic often captures something the imagination better than any amount of stylistic genre-hopping ever could.
Like those aforementioned producers, Wendel has his own special skill. As anyone who has seen him live would probably agree, there’s obviously something about Wendel’s mind that understands the mechanics of dance music in way that little others do. Stripped back is a phrase used increasingly often, but Wendel practically splits the atom of house and techno, using the bottled energy to create his own set of building blocks which he rearranges in simple but brilliant ways. His music seems so utterly geared towards the subtleties of a well-balanced soundsystem that it begs the question as to whether an album of Kassem Mosse material even makes much sense.
Workshop 19 is probably just the kind of Kassem Mosse album you’d expect. It’s not an attempt to cross over into different spheres, it is, quite simply, a collection of nine incredibly strong Kassem Mosse tracks, bereft of any signifying name beyond the side and track number. It starts with “A1”, a track with the kind of direct musicality often missing from much of his tracks; some cautiously explored Rhodes notes and a whispered spoken vocal that remains on just the right side of indecipherable are balanced by jackhammer toms and rimshots that mark out his signature. “A2” meanwhile is pure chest cavity-rattling Mosse, with a kick drum that could take the air out of your lungs, while the swirling dub chords of “A2” and abstract sonics of “A3” are delivered in just the forthright way you’d expect.
The album isn’t all pure club music however; both “B3” and “C1” largely reject beats to hone in on a single melodic motif, demonstrating that Wendel’s musical ear is equally as impressive without a drum machine to play with, but these are in stark contrast to the two contrasting long-form jams which close the LP, taking things further into improvised territory than Wendel has ventured before. “C2” is the darkest track on the album by some way, adopting a considerably more mechanical rhythm whose percussion that sounds like a pick being swung by a tired diamond miner. Its acidic bassline splutters rather than growls, but even in this exhausted state Wendel’s music finds a way to enter an uncharted landscape. “D1” is considerably lighter but still powerfully propulsive, despite a serene Rhodes improvisation that seems almost exclusively geared to home listening.
In keeping with Wendel’s studious nature, Workshop 19 is not an album of peaks and troughs; it’s impressively consistent throughout, and as densely packed as a collection as Wendel’s tracks are on their own individual terms. Eveyone will have their personal favourite, but “A3” seems to sum up the album best. Combining a spectral version of a classic Korg M1-style house melody with a drum pattern that doesn’t seem to repeat the same bar twice, it stops just short of the kind of release you’d expect from such recognisable genre signifiers. It’s not a track of ecstatic dancefloor release, but something much more unassuming. Like the rest of Workshop 19, it’s a track that may not do anything particularly unexpected, but quietly and self-assuredly does it better than almost any house or techno you’re likely to hear this year.
Scott Wilson
Tracklisting:
1. Untitled A1
2. Untitled A2
3. Untitled A3
4. Untitled B1
5. Untitled B2
6. Untitled B3
7. Untitled C1
8. Untitled C2
9. Untitled D1