- In the years since she left Minus, Magda has tried to shake off "the mistress of minimal" tag. Not that it ever really suited her in the first place. Though she shared countless stages with the likes of Richie Hawtin throughout the '00s, she always delivered something more bubbly than the classic minimal style.
And so it is on the second, more club-focused CD of Magda's Balance mix. While a bit more colourful and playful, this is clearly the same DJ who mixed 2006's She's A Dancing Machine and 2009's fabric 49. Magda's sets are always stuffed with so many tunes that there's no real chance to get bored—no matter how rudimentary a track is, it's barely a minute before it moves into another. And this CD is bursting with those wriggling basslines that are her calling card, like the funky little number that pops out in Jonson and Siminski's remix of Seth Troxler's "Evangelion." Tom Trago's "Fall On Me" winds and grinds at the end of the mix, and in between we have plenty of acid squelch, punchy drums and daft noises, making this one of the most fun techno mixes in recent memory.
If that's fairly classic Magda, the first CD sees her heading into more abstract and experimental electronics from artists such as Wishmountain, Shackleton and Dinos Chapman. These are the sounds she's been exploring with her partner Daniela Huerta under the name Cornerbred, and she sounds like she's still feeling her way around a bit. There are odd textures in NYMA and Carreno Is LB's "Solaria,"greasy squeaks in CV30X's "2x4," and odd surprises like the double bass in Gregory Fleckner Quintet's "How Much Would Conkers Cost?" Rework's "Traubenzucker" is the only time Balance 27 sinks into the turgid minimal sound Magda's been trying to escape. But it doesn't take too long for her to find another bassline and pull herself out with a bounce.
TracklistCD1
01. Tomas More - Gold, Grey & Dun***
02. Dinos Chapman - Alltid
03. Jahiliyya Fields - Turned on Type
04. Tase - Comeback
05. NYMA & Carreno is LB - Solaria***
06. Gregory Fleckner Quintet - How Much Would Conkers Cost?
07. Farben: presents James Din A4 - Please Excuse my Face
08. Rework - Traubenzucker
09. Odd Soul - Capitoul
10. Hauntologists - Shakes
11. Luc Ringeisen - Beat Design
12. Wishmountain - Crisps
13. Cornerbred - Riding High
14. Odei - Radius Head
15. #.19.21.3.11.21.20 - B1
16. Brett Johnson - Big Drunk Caterpillar
17. CV30X - 2x4
18. Nicholas Desamory feat. Lucile Desamory - The Truth
19. Kaitaro - Magic Channel
20. Rotorik - Verschollen In Der Unendlichkeit
21. Errorsmith - Make or Break
22. Shackleton - Cast the Die
23. Andrew Pekler - Pitch Class Spy Glass
CD2
01. Andrew Pekler - Dizzy Spells of Summer
02. Minor Science - The Beckoner
03. The Mole & Hreno - Things are Heating Up in the Grizzly Maze
04. Murat Tepeli - P.S.A. (Play Stop Acid)
05. Marc Houle - Techletoes
06. Alliv Sobol - Toz 11
07. Tomas More - Who’s in Charge (Melodic Version)
08. Rework - In a Dance
09. Stefny Winter - I Needed That
10. XDB - Indywa
11. Seth Troxler - Evangelon (Jonson & Siminski remix)
12. Magda - Trailerfork
13. Trus’me - It’s Slow (Truncate Raw Mix Part 1)
14. Samuli Kemppi - Wrong Turn
15. Etcher - They Are Us
16. T.B. Arthur - 1 (B1)
17. Marcel Dettmann - Apron (PAS Tubed mix 2)
18. DVS1 - Black Russian
19. Lester Fitzpatrick - Tone Control
20. Magda - Scrumps
21. Birdsmakingmachine - Icaros
22. Sandman - Machines Like This
23. Gabriel Ferreira - Fold
24. Tom Trago - Fall Down on Me
25. Transllusion - Walking With Clouds
26. Obergman - Holometer