The techno full-length album is something of a conundrum. How do you translate music that works best in austere public spaces into something you might want to listen to in your livingroom, without losing its very essence? Berghain resident Marcel Fengler has taken the view that diversity and good taste are the key, and over the course of an hour his long-awaited debut album takes in fluttering synthscapes (Break Through, Liquid Torso), beatless acid (High Falls) and heady, sunrise techno (Trespass, the gorgeous Jaz) as well as more brutalist fare such as King Of Psi and The Stampede, which sounds like a swarm of angry hornets. Overall, the bias is probably tipped slightly too far in favour of taste and decency (cf the New Age mush of Distant Episode), but Fokus is nonetheless an assured, sonically engaging debut.
Download: Jaz, The Stampede