New album by Anthony Rother - We Are Punks 2

Perhaps you might think that purchasing the new double CD collection, which includes the best compositions from the releases on the Frankfurt label Datapunk alongside exclusive and previously unreleased tracks, just six months after the release of a similar triple CD, may be excessive for your collection. However, by not buying it and not listening to it, you risk losing the very essence of the style. Indeed, of all the subgenres of techno, electro is the only one where the musical elements and ideas that emerged earlier are most carefully preserved. The specificity of the genre lies in a special approach to composing music rather than a unique sound, and Anthony Rother, dedicating himself to this, has made a successful career as both a musician and a label owner. From this perspective, he perhaps surpasses even Alter Ego, the true German king of electro. Therefore, there is no reason to reproach him for the fact that all his tracks sound almost the same over the years: he knows it, and he knows that we know it. In this case, enjoyment can be derived from mixing accents, as in the track on the second disc 'So Good,' where the author's vocals appear in a more 'pure' form than usual. The same can be said of other label artists, such as Artist Unknown, also known as Billy Nasty (who was one of the pioneers of the first wave of nu-electro musicians about 10 years ago). For this release, they all contributed tracks that could have easily been released over the past decade on labels like Disko B or Viewlexx, and this fact emphasizes not only their sincerity and dedication to their craft but also their professionalism. The compilation contains several surprises. For example, Kiko, known for releasing more aggressive tracks on Goodlife and Gigolo, has excelled in capriciousness and non-transitivity of sound, as in the latest single '30.1.' His remix for Xenia Beliayeva (the newest protege of Rozer) from the same series: the track 'Music' is contemplative, melodic, and unusually elevated. At the same time, Miss Kittin & The Hacker (whose legendary track 'Frank Sinatra' was recorded in Kiko's home studio) presented new material that gives reason to believe that after the new single and live performance in Paris last autumn 2008 could be very successful for them. The Hacker continues to write music on his own, and Miss Kittin released a new solo album, but when they are together, there is something special about it. In any case, they have always preferred cold Detroit techno to bright electroclash embellishments, and their new track 'Midlife Crisis,' although stuck in time in terms of sound, has an atmosphere of newfound maturity. It's as if Miss Kittin has become less interested in blowjobs, ass licking, and pinching her buttocks in the elevator of the Empire State Building, and has placed more emphasis on enticing you... to dance with her, which may be a small revolution in a genre that usually refuses to grow up but in this case - to age. It is said that electro has saturated everyone’s ears, but when Anthony Rother and his renowned friends from Datapunk label take on the task, you can once again succumb to the distorted beauty of this style.