Kilchhofer / Hainbach – Acosta

Marionette

Inaugurating the Little Mary series of collaborative vinyl releases on Marionette, Acosta is a split LP featuring label veteran Benjamin Kilchhofer on one side and Hainbach on the obverse.

With four tracks per side (and a bonus digital piece each too), Acosta demonstrates an intriguing affinity between the two artists; and while Kilchhofer is more percussive where Hainbach focuses in detail on rhythm, the LP nevertheless works well when considered as a whole rather than as merely two sides of vinyl split between a pair of otherwise unrelated artists.

Kilchhofer’s sound is fluttery and flickering, padding softly with an ursine rhythm that underpins the gathering flips, hits and blips with which he constructs an immersive swarm of gentle rhythms and dub-scaped trails on “Aska”. Squeaky and pinging softly, edges smoothed and almost pliable, the electronic undulations occasionally shimmer with bass interventions and reverberant tones.

On “Russ”, the mood is liquid and evolutionary, far from ambient in the traditional sense, but warm and inviting whether left in the backround or when taking notice of the snappy detail and attention with which Kilchhofer lets his music flow. By contrast, “Suckfuell” rides on a brightly percussive foundation, handclaps cycling in a minimalist ride through an imaginary exotic landscape that weaves an invigoratingly hypnotic spell.

This hallucinatory blending continues on Hainbach’s “By the Motorway, By The River”, where a sampled singing voice, crackling environmental sounds and woozy undulating loops recall the dreamlike (and equally studio-constructed) “Boat-Woman-Song” from Holger Czukay and Rolf Dammers‘s Canaxis album of 1969. The watery travel theme is maintained on “Heart of Darkness”, where intricate Coilish rolling block rhythms trundle on their merry way as electrical squitters fluctuate and frazzle.

When the avant-garde fadeout of “Counterpoint” warbles and self-oscillates the LP to a close, it’s nice to know that there’s both more to be found on the two bonus tracks (Kilchhofer’s “Zahnen” is bouncy and upbeat, even veering into the realm of groovy not-quite drum and bass BPMs; Hainbach’s “Glueck” is calmly reflective and shimmering) and further releases yet to come from Little Mary too.

-Linus Tossio-