Penetrans

This is only Institut Fuer Feinmotorik's second full-length album (Cd-Projekt compiled their various EPs) and the recipe already wears thin. The group works generally with turntables deprived of their expected records. Using various devices and preparations on up to eight tables and needles, the artists create strange, scratchy sounds that they loop and shape into techno pieces. The sounds themselves can be easily mistaken for digital clicks & cuts. "Problem?" kicks off very nicely, long textures complementing the looped beat. "Behalte Du Deinen Traum, Ich Behalte das Geld!" (which translates to "Keep your dream, I'll keep the cash!") includes sounds one can hardly relate to turntablism, a tendency that will grow as the CD spins on. Still, this one has a lightness to it reminiscent of Sack und Blumm. If "Ein Versuch Ist Ja Wohl Nicht Strafbar" holds another surprise in terms of sound palette, by the fourth track the listener has a pretty good idea of the remainder of the album. Each track tends to be repetitive once the beat is established and, despite the fact that the group varies the textures and the rhythms, an uncomfortable feeling of homogeneity and limitation takes over. As far as record-less turntablism goes, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, and Martin Tétreault have done things a lot more daring and extreme. Applied to experimental techno, it only manages to sound like your next-door laptop artist.