This is likely to be the most atypical Ostgut-Ton release since the Berghain label’s relaunch. On the A-side, however, and on the title track, you’ll recognize an old favourite: those synths on »Love Letter« that snap into place out of nowhere sound as though they’ve been borrowed from Ben Klock’s »Subzero« and repurposed for a big-room techno-pop anthem. In general, this release draws on electronic club music from the early and mid-2010s: acts such as Tale of Us or Mind Against spring to mind, as does the solemn seriousness of labels such as Afterlife, which the former founded. In addition, there’s indie electronica from groups like Bob Moses, who now seem to have vanished off the face of the earth and who had a tough time keeping up with the likes of WhoMadeWho. Not to mention The Knife.
On the B-side, »Whisper« is a track without whispered, icy, disembodied vocals; at most, a ghostly hiss shimmers through a countdown and hinted-at pads. There’s no need to wonder exactly where Alisa Chernysheva, aka Inox Traxx – who most recently released on Ignez’s Somov Records or with Rødhåd – is heading with this. With the Love Letter EP, she cements what was already hinted at in her work: in her hands, techno is allowed to have melodies and to make use of catchiness – perhaps even simplicity – that mocks the genre’s elitist vow of complexity and lovingly embraces the grand-scale tech-house of over a decade ago.
Love Letter
