Brilliant album spanning 5 years of releases from the career of Paul Kominek. As usual, this can be purchased and previewed at Beatport (album link) and additionally Kompakt.FM. I've also embedded 4 full-length version tracks off of YouTube (Dawn, Kramnik, Coke, and Muscles).
Almost 10 years after Paul Kominek aka Turner cofounded the Dial Label he now releases his long awaited first Pawel album. In the meantime his Turner Project grew to an amazing success, his large output includes 3 Longplayers on Ladomat and Mute and many singles and remixes for Ellen Alien, Miss Kitten, Depeche Mode etc. In 2006 Kominek founded the Orphanear label in Berlin to take care of his own releases, newcomers and remixes by Vince Watson, Robert Hood and Sten. Now his debut album comes out covered by silver typographie on a white sleeve, reduced and glittering- just like Pawel's music. It was a long journey to reach the top of Kominek's work. After firstly touching the techno music scene in the Detroit influenced Frankfurt he moved to the melancholic deep city Hamburg. From here he started several trips around the world, mainly southamerica and asia. All this melts together into the typical sound of Pawel. Tracks such as Coke und Crillon are deeply inspired by almost two decades of Detroit's Planet E - Era, followed by new artists like Patrice Scott and Omar S. The Warp alike Muscles comes up with a touch of Plaid's elegance but subtile deepness conects it to other lowlights like Alvin and Wasting My Time. Here you find again the sweet and lovely Turner, a musician who reinvented him self to share a dream with us.
It’s taken years for Paul Kominek to release his first full-length as Pawel. Then again, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy bothered by time constraints. His DJing career began in Germany in the mid-1990s, he started releasing music as Turner in 1997, and his real commitment came into focus when he helped create Hamburg’s Dial label in 2000. The founders (Kominek, Carsten Jost and Peter Kersten, a.k.a. Lawrence) have always focused on the minimal techno they loved, but until now the press plaudits have gone mostly to Lawrence, Phillip Sollman’s Efdemin moniker, and Hendrik Weber as Pantha du Prince. Though Weber has taken his pop prowess over to Rough Trade, Pawel fills the label’s gap for a more colorful future.
Dial has always played in deep snow under slate grey skies, but there’s more going on with this record than moody, monochromatic techno exercises. Kominek marries the ghost chimes and gloomy sighs of his label’s flagship acts with the brighter bounce of the Kompakt stable (Dial’s distributor) or Detroit stalwart Matthew Dear. Take opener “Panamerican,” for instance, which rises and falls on a lively loop more reminiscent of Matias Aguayo’s recent Ay Ay Ay than anything Efdemin’s done. It’s a bishop’s gambit, perhaps unintentional, that threw me off balance immediately.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, if you read our recent Listed feature, which is a great reference point; Kominek displays the two main facets of his sound in the records he chose. There are the selections you’d expect if you’ve spent much time with the Dial back catalog or heard Pawel’s beautiful finale, “Wasting My Time.” Then there are the albums he mentions that suggest a brighter beat, David Thomas Broughton, DJ Sneak and Aguayo. These less minimal influences come out in the playful “Coke” and the appropriately titled mid-album thump of “Muscles,” the sturdiest beat on the album.
Unlike other Dial artists who tend to emphasize the dark over the light in their chiaroscuros, Kominek weaves them in and out of one another throughout the album. Pawel is at its best when they’re in sync — like Weber, Kominek is using vocals here for the first time since his Turner days, and it’s no coincidence that the most resonant moments of the album incorporate the human voice: Both “Dawn” and the aforementioned “Wasting My Time” are exceptional without being obviously out of place. It’s a testament to Kominek that he’s taken his time in releasing this. The reward is that Pawel now proudly takes its place among Dial’s most surprisings and enjoyable albums.
By Patrick Masterson
Full Samples:
Credits:
Artwork By - Christian Doering
Artwork By [Graphic] - Till Sperrle, ITF Grafik Design
Mastered By - Andreas "Lupo" Lubich*
Producer, Written-By - Paul Kominek
Notes: Comes in a Digipak.
All tracks written and produced between 2004 and 2009.
Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering.
Published by Warner Chappell.
p&c Dial Records
Made in the EU 2010
Distribution: Kompakt
