Concentric Pleasures: Flying High With Roman Flügel

by Philip Sherburne

Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.

You know what's been strange about this season? There hasn't been a monster hit from Alter Ego, nor from its more visible member Roman Flügel. (His partner, Jörn Elling Wuttke, keeps a much lower solo profile.) For a while there, the Frankfurt musicians set the tone for the summer: in 2004, with Alter Ego's bruising "Rocker," and then again in 2005 with Flügel's "Geht's Noch?" After kitting out "Rocker" with remixes from the likes of dub-stepper Plasticman, Eric Prydz and more, Alter Ego returned at the end of 2007 with Why Not?!, a cheeky slab of aggro electro-techno, but none of that album's singles managed to take off in quite the same way. This spring, Alter Ego released What's Next?!, a collection of remixes from the last LP. The title seems to suggest a certain degree of top-of-their-game anxiety, which might be warranted: even reworks from such hot properties as Supermayer, Joakim, Modeselektor and Carl Craig haven't generated much interest in the record. What's next might just be a return to the underground values that have always dominated Flügel's labels Klang, Ongaku and Playhouse. The truth is, Flügel's and Alter Ego's hits have always felt like flukes. Instead of waiting for another chart-topper, here's some back catalog to check out.

Roman IV, "Altes Testament" (Ladomat 2000/Playhouse)

It's hard to believe that this cut dates back to 1994, from Flügel's first EP under the Roman IV alias. (Originally on Ladomat, it was reissued on Playhouse—the label's second release, in fact—in 1995.) From its spongy, aquamarine chords to its Wildpitch-styled string ostinatos, it's right in line with all the neo-deep house that's been so big in the last year. It only makes sense, then, that Flügel recently gave the track a contemporary update, dubbing it down and sprucing up the synths; "Neues Testament" is out soon.

Soylent Green, "Jet Set" (Playhouse)

Soylent Green has always been my favorite Flügel alias; his 2003 album La Forza del Destino is a triumph of focused intensity, carving grooves that are at once laidback and emphatic. "Jet Set," originally released in 1998, shows what Flügel can do with just a handful of sounds: mostly empty space and unusually free of reverb, the track acts like a kind of anechoic chamber, leaving his ping-pong delays bouncing drily. It's an odd sensation. "La Forza del Destino" has more in common with Alter Ego's bass-heavy squelch, but it's still majestically restrained.

Eight Miles High, "Conversations" (Klang)

Named after the Byrds' song, you might expect Flügel's Eight Miles High incarnation to be more psychedelic than his other work, and you'd be right. "Conversations," which first appeared on Eigh Miles High's 2002 album Katalog and was reissued this year as part of the Flügel-curated comp Diamanten Und Raketen II, is lush and dreamy, setting reverberant guitar strums against minimalist percussion. Despite the fact that very little actually happens, it's as carefully laid out as a Zen rock garden.

Comments

[mitch v]

I'm baffled as to why What's Next!? hasn't hit super big, I've been playing it all the time! Especially the Koze remix of Jolly Joker, that one's easily as catchy as Rocker or Geht's Noch? in my opinion.

[chrisdisco]

the malaise with roman goes beyond the productions - his dj'ing has really lost what was special about it too. there was a stage where he a very unique, distinctive sound full of amazing, surprising tracks. that has largely gone. hopefully he will get his act together, as roman is one of the most talented people in the business.

[PC/dysconnect]

I too had been wondering where Flügel had flown.

Interestingly, I heard one of the Alter Ego tracks on a fidget-y mix earlier this year – it made a lot more sense in that context, and I realised that they were (perhaps) twitching in that direction.

Speaking of not Twitch, JG Wilkes also plays some of the remixes a bit....

In Australia at least, there has been a massive electro-house backlash (after the 03-05 orgy), and to a lot of those audiences, Alter Ego was synonymous with that sound. Having said that, of all the dozen or so CDs I burnt for my lady's younger brother (some tasteful, some classic, others contemporary) it was the recent Alter Ego album that he and his friends really, really went for... and apparently 'Jolly Joker' gets played out here a lot among the alcopops/jagerbombs/fluoro diggin' 18-25s.

Both Flügel's 8 Miles High compilation and the early Playhouse EPs mentioned above are exquisite, and as PS suggests, anyone interested in the current deep/minimal/tech/house spectrum should seek-and-possess.

[Tasho]

I think the Alter Ego Album sounded a bit bandwagon jumping... I liked it but it sounded like a lot of other music that's come out in the last few years (Dirty Bird, Switch, etc.) Where as his earlier stuff, particularly the Soylent Green releases, were more unique. They sort of existed in their own world. That Soylent Green on Playhouse from 1998 sounds fresher and more original than that Alter Ego album. John Tejada recently told me the Soylent Green ep on Playhouse is still one of his favorite records...

[spikey]

alter ego as a duo hasn't had a good album since 'decoding the hacker myth'. this so called electro garbage (which is by no means even 'electro' in the ture sense of the sound) that they've been producing over the past few years is nothing but noise. it's utter shit (compared to the music they used it make that is)! the last good track roman made as a solo artist was 'mutter' 2 or 3 years ago. as far as i'm concerned and unless they suprise me with something amazing in the future, alter ego and roman as well have sold out to mainstream dance and are no longer worth paying attention to.

[casper_c]

I think What's Next sounded a little like Geht's Noch. More of a return to past glories than bandwagon jumping.

For me, at least, this has been a real summer of Alter Ego once again. They're not going anywhere!