ARTICLES
Ten Questions: Fat Jon
MUTEK 2006

ALBUMS
65daysofstatic
A Cloud Mireya
Ambarchi and Ng
Another Elec. Musician
Derek Bailey
Band Ane
Barzin
Black Gold 360
The Blow
Boduf Songs
Childs
Darc Mind
Dosh
Duopandamix
Fat Jon & Styrofoam
Liam Gillick
Shuta Hasunuma
Tim Hecker
Ilkae
Jack's Son
Richard Jäverling
Jazzkammer
Junior Boys
Last Days
Hanno Leichtmann
Luomo
Mandelbrot Set
Mountaineer
N.Phect & Dizplay
Part Timer
Karsten Pflum
Benoît Pioulard
Plus Device
+/- {Plus/Minus}
Relay
Saroos
Seht
Shedding
So Percussion
Sybarite
Trio Vopá
Marshall Watson
Weather Report
Donato Wharton
Christopher Willits
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
ESL Remixed
Four Tet
Garnier & Craig
Ginglik Saturdays
Michael Mayer
Henrik Schwarz

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Colleen
Delano and Xpansul
Detritus
Ed Devane
Eskimo
Feathers
Goldmund
Ezekiel Honig/Graphic
Ezekiel Honig
Eliot Lipp
Robert Lippok
Alejandro Lopez
Evan Marc
Porter & Carr
Sebastian Russell
Somone Else
Spaceships & Pings
SplitEP3
Simon Whetham

Plus Device: Puncture
Hefty

It's easy to get caught up in the guessing game surrounding Plus Device's identity. Its web site is coyly evasive and Hefty itself only concedes that the group is “a secret side project of two well-known electronic producers” and one with apparent Detroit connections. While Plus Device's sound is far from generic, its heavy embrace of classic Detroit techno—basic drum machines, Moog synthesizers, Rhodes piano, the Roland TB-303—tends to camouflage the individuating touches that reveal immediately a particular artist's signature. Having said that, there's no question Puncture's acid-drenched “Our Pleasures (Realization)” and especially its drum machine workout and voice slicing could be the handiwork of 2 AM/FM, the Spectral duo of Tadd Mullinix and Marc Cantu. On the other hand, tracks like the syncopated electro-funkster “Ultra Seductive,” “Absorb,” and euphoric “My, To Make You Feel” could be by Hefty artist Eliot Lipp, so intently do they squeeze every last bit of juice from their squealing Moogs. Elsewhere, “Body Heat,” with its crisp snare slap, synth banks, and monotone vocodered croak, impresses more in this fuller context than it did as a single while the booty-bass strut of “Sexual Harassment” finds Plus Device and guest vocalist Dutch Master getting filthy (Puncture's sex-oriented song titles and photography suggest a brazenly hedonistic mindset). No matter whose hands are twirling the knobs (perhaps Hefty head John Hughes is involved too), Puncture's fresh fusion of classic and contemporary electronic sounds will strongly appeal to fans of classic (Mantronix, Drexciya, Model 500, Kraftwerk) and current acts (2 AM/FM, James T. Cotton, Eliot Lipp).

November 2006