Records: Burger/Ink's Las Vegas

By Sam Frank

Matador Records: America's preeminent indie-pop label? Quite possibly. Stuck in a rut? Most definitely.

The folks at Matador have been trying to snap themselves out of it for a while now, and without much success--releasing albums by Liz Phair With A Drum Machine (Solex) and the Japanese Beck (Cornelius). With the recent release of Las Vegas by Burger/Ink (Jeorg and Mike, respectively), an album as indie and pop as anything Yo La Tengo ever made, the Matador bunch have reestablished themselves as a truly forward-thinking label.

Burger and Ink are no Chemical Brothers. Instead of hitting you over the head with a meathead breakbeat and a cheesy sample, music so overblown and underthought that it's boring after a minute, they explore the hypnotic power of maximal minimalism, beautiful repetition, and stasis in motion. In the April 1998 issue of Spin, Simon Reynolds called this new sound of Berlin techno "heroin house." And with beats layered deep down in the soup of texture--dubbed out á la King Tubby--electronic whirrs mutate imperceptibly yet inescapably.

Las Vegas is not on the same level of abstraction as Pole's recent and brilliant release CD1/LP1, an album that sounds like a killer dub of Oval's computer hiccups. Instead, it deals in recognizable beats and multiple layers which fade in and out so gradually that you hardly notice the shifts. Or rather, you don't notice until you leave the room for a minute and return to find that everything has changed: new melodies have dropped in, muffled handclaps have replaced a shuffling maraca. Sometimes the sounds blend, sometimes they separate, but they always seduce, making for supreme headphone listening.

Las Vegas embodies the oxymoron "dance music you can't dance to." It's too lazy, too melodic. Echo and reverb transform the album's texture, and the occasional human touch sounds a reminder of the real world outside; the individual sound of a guitar, horn, or bell adds even more melancholy into the mix.

Each element Burger and Ink stir into Las Vegas becomes part of the larger picture. That picture is one of the most beautifully holistic statements techno has made in a very long while. (Matador)

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