One

At this point, the Ostgut label might want to consider dropping a damp squib to relieve the pressure for the next producer who releases a mix, 12", or album on the label. The offshoot of the reputable Berlin club Berghain, Ostgut has become one of the most reliable sources of lean and bracing German techno, and Ben Klock's first full-length — after a pair of solo singles, in addition to collaborations with Marcel Dettmann that yielded a single and a double pack — only increases the stakes for the next artist album. One is, in fact, at least the equal of Prosumer & Murat Tepeli's Serenity and Shed's Shedding the Past, the artist albums released by Ostgut in 2008. One is rooted in Klock's typically cycling rhythms, yet the sum of the tracks add up to a set that is very much album shaped, as opposed to merely album length; there are deliberate shifts in tone and mood, entailing some trenchant beats as well as a handful of simultaneously subdued and suspense-building tracks that are just as creative. Klock avoided making downtempo fluff for the sake of bluffing the full-length format; even the dubstep track, "Gold Rush," is evocative. The one track that most exemplifies the album is "Goodly Sin," where Elif Biçer's spooked vocals swarm over a smacking beat, scuffing percussive accents, and submerged bleeps.