“This album is about the cold dark grey Berlin winter” – Marc Houle. A simple statement, sure – but anyone who experienced Berlin during the winter of 2009 / 2010 will know exactly where Marc is coming from. Each day and night the temperature remained below freezing, the sky grey from an unsettling lack of sun. Ice covered streets from Kreuzberg to Prenzlauer Berg. The conditions did, however, grant Marc the opportunity to spend all of his waking hours in the studio, absorbing the warm welcoming heat generated from his analogue synths. The experimentation during this winter period was the catalyst for Marc’s latest long-player for Minus¬ – quite possibly his most accomplished and personal release to date. Drift is an album of tracks inspired by the prolonged Berlin winter, and the depression, which it so often causes – from the chill of the coldest nights felt on tracks such as Inside and The Next, through to songs that encompass the frustrations of gray skies such as Seeing In The Dark. Marc has created a season of emotions and in doing so put forth his own personal frustrations towards what is considered “techno” in its most basic form. Locking himself away during a winter season to fully embrace his own idealism has resulted in an album on which his rebellious nature and desire for a more experimental musical mentality has cast him further from the standard practice of our techno underworld. His grievances are at their most clear on the title track, which is an intense, and ultimately angry, techno belter produced as the winter season caused feelings less of “beauty” and more of suffocation. Drift is not without moments in which the sunlight peeks through the layers of heavy clouds, however. Tracks such as Sweet and Hitcher Man provide the audible interpretation of a person dreaming of warmer climates. The not so forgotten idea of being elsewhere, with the experience of finally seeing the snow fade away and the clouds drift towards springtime skies. By the time the album reaches its finale, with the track Hammering, it’s clear that Marc’s winter blues have receded, as the few remaining patches of ice melt into puddles of past musical memories. While summer has not yet arrived, the sun is starting to make its presence felt, warming the city streets once more. A mainstay of the Minus camp, Marc Houle has been known to push the boundaries with his output for the label, always adding tweaks and twists from analogue synths, unexpected, obscure sounds, and an onslaught of vocals and playfulness. He is a producer clearly not satisfied with following the guidelines set by other techno practitioners. His take on electronic music is one in its own, a personal sound that draws upon his early influences from industrial, retro and Detroit, along with a modern vision of path-finding techno. His ability to play with ideas and equally provide functionality for the floor sets Marc Houle apart. And his latest venture for the label, although inspired by the coldest moments of the year, is undoubtedly hot as fire.
