Stefan Goldmann

Like Shed and Minilogue, Stefan Goldmann belongs to a new wave of techno producers interested in pushing the more conceptual boundaries of the genre. Goldmann is a bit more ambitious, however, as his debut album is a whopping two-disc set, with one disc dedicated to minimal techno and the other to synthesized ambient drone. Minilogue attempted a similar feat recently with their impressive debut album, Animals, but Goldmann has a broader range, both in terms of what he packs into his techno and the brooding design of his ambient work. Relying explicitly on the grind of machine-like repetition to underpin the compelling guitar and smooth string melodies over top, Goldmann’s techno, which is no less brilliant than, and in some ways a perfect companion to, Shed’s Shedding the Past, is dry and brittle but at the same time, spontaneous and wandering, harkening back to a time when techno wasn’t necessarily something that had to find function on the dance floor. The ambient side is dubbed "Voices of the Dead” and contains another ten tracks that showcase Goldmann’s strengths as an experimental artist.