- There's a kind of sexy contrast to the idea of STL on Smallville. The Hamburg label is known for trim and gently emotive house, while Stephan Laubner's style is loose and dirty, his records full of grubby kicks, sand-paper hi-hats and queasy-sounding melodies. Together they've released some of the best music from either camp, most notably Silent State, the near-flawless dub house EP from 2009. At Disconnected Moments, Laubner's new album on Smallville, mines this common ground more than ever before, digging up (between the CD and the LP) seven previously unreleased tracks, two old favorites and four loops.
As promising as that may sound, something here falls flat.
STL is an artist with a very specific palette, but he usually still has a lot of range—his albums on Something are in turns soothing and dissonant, semi-ambient and, in their own way, ravey ("Dark Energy," "Something Is Raw"). At Disconnected Moments, meanwhile, pretty much stays on one tack the entire time: dusty dub techno with thick drums and muddy basslines. There are some great tracks here—"One Day" and "Amelie's Dub" are both beautifully delicate despite their meaty beats, and "Ghostly Ambit" is Laubner at his most mysterious. But with such a uniform feel overall, it's hard to get to the end of this thing without feeling a little restless.
This is especially true of the CD version. When it comes to full-lengths, Laubner has a format that's always served him well: double-vinyl packs with six or seven new productions, plus a batch of locked-groove loops. Smallville released the album this way, but also as an unmixed CD with two old tracks: "Silent State" and "Neurotransmitting Clouds On The Secret Freeway." Both are great, but they're nearly five years old, and they sound a little out of place here. They also add another 22 minutes to an album already an hour long.
Still, STL is STL, an artist who sounds inspired even at his most ho-hum. With its frosty atmospheres, smudged textures and all-important gravelly drums, At Disconnected Moments will still do the trick for many of Laubner's fans (especially the DJs), even if it sags as a whole.
Lista de sequência de músicas01. Scuba’s Motion Dub
02. One Day
03. Neurotransmitting Clouds On A Secret Freeway
04. Space Cats
05. Amelie’s Dub
06. Silent State
07. Good Wine
08. Ghostly Ambit
09. Over And Out