Justus Koehncke is the
Kompakt producer with the greatest combination of nerve and imagination. On 2002's
Was Ist Musik?, he had the nerve to sample
Imagination in a song that was sleek, stark
synth pop instead of strutting, glowing
R&B. On the
Kompakt 100 compilation, he provided a remix of a
Wolfgang Voigt track called
"Hot Love" that added adjusted lyrics from
T. Rex's song of the same name; no one is likely to make a more cuddly or squiggly song about a boy being in love with a boy. On
Doppelleben, his third solo album and second for
Kompakt, he covers
Carly Simon for the second time and juggles silly
pop songs with clever
dance tracks. It's more direct and of a happier demeanor compared to
Was Ist Musik?, tipped off by the difference between the photos on the sleeves: on the back of the earlier album, a blurry black-and-white
Koehncke glances downward, while
Koehncke's piercing blue eyes are featured on the front here. A noir-ish interlude excepted, nothing on this album bears a trace of moodiness. Even his German-language translation of
Simon's
"Coming Around Again" is more pleasant than dramatic, voiced -- as always -- with the tone of a close friend who is always happy to see you. The bubbly
electronic pop songs skip on fluffy white clouds, while two of his smoothest, richest neo-
disco productions raise the temperature ever so slightly. (Unfortunately, the phenomenal 2004 A-side
"Timecode," a happy medium between the
boogie of
Metro Area and the
techno of
Mathew Jonson, is trimmed to four minutes.
"Elan," on the other hand, is a 21st century
Chic instrumental that's eight minutes in length.) If there's any reason why this album should exist, beyond its end-to-end strengths, it's that it was obviously made by someone in love with life. The planet we're on always needs more of that. ~ Andy Kellman
