Bleep

MinaeMinae’s Gestrüpp is a breathtaking record of strange, abstracted loop tracks. This seven-track LP comes off like a kind of wide-eyed take on Pantha Du Prince or Gold Panda. In other hands the beats here have all the makings of the former’s worldly minimal techno or the latter’s organic beatsmithery - cuts such as ‘Flügelhüllen’ feature the sort of dinky drums and melodious guitar loops that either of the aforementioned would utilise with relish.

However, MinaeMinae is also an altogether more idiosyncratic producer than many of his peers, with Gestrüpp drawing more consciously from the worlds of industrial music and fourth-world. Loops often phase in and out sync with the drums, whirring and sputtering to create an effect not dissimilar to Mouse On Mars, Matmos or the zanier end of Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam. Apparently his mother compared the music that MinaeMinae made when he was a child to Philip Glass, and one can certainly detect the influence of the vaunted NYC minimalist school to Gestrüpp’s treatments.

Towards the end of 2019 a delightful curio emerged on the Human Pitch label - MinaeMinae’s debut LP Variante. Now, a few short months on from Variante, the German producer follows up that record with new full-length Gestrüpp on the ever impressive Marionette Records.