Paul Kalkbrenner - Berlin Calling Soundtrack

Ask anyone in the know and they'll tell you: Paul Kalkbrenner is a class act. Over the past decade, he's released a smattering of choice singles, remixes and even a couple of albums on Ellen Allien's Bpitch Control label to much critical and popular acclaim. He's one of the few producers who can tie together a really great, soaring, searing melody and a heavy (we're talking headbangin' heavy) club beat into a beautiful whole, all with a wonderfully wistful sensibility that's rarely seen outside of the world of Kompakt records.


(above: Kalkbrenner rocking the Locarno Film Festival)

Like his labelmates Ellen Allien and Sascha Funke, Kalkbrenner is now a prime candidate for being the next "crossover" act into indie rock territory: his huge fanbase in the world of techno is all abuzz about the release of the upcoming Berlin Calling, a film about a Berlin DJ which features his debut both as an actor and as a soundtrack composer.



So it's with poorly concealed excitement, enthusiasm and a little bit of bias that I'm going to recommend seeing his new movie and checking out its soundtrack. Those of us stuck in America are probably fucked for the movie (I doubt it will get a theatrical release), but at least we can check out the Berlin Calling Soundtrack. To those already familiar with Kalkbrenner's work, it's a choice selection of new, beautiful but relatively chill tracks (in the vein of "Since 77") and some of his best previous work ("Castanets" and "Gebrunn Gebrunn," among others). To the novice, I think it's a perfect introduction to his work, as it plays something like a greatest hits: a good mix of both Kalkbrenner's dreamy melancholies and impassioned club anthems.

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