While Dunklebunt’s previous releases traverse anything from ambience to straight up Romany folk traditions, this release is aimed squarely at the dancefloor. ‘Cinnamon Girl’ itself is built on riffs and jazz instrumentation straight from flapper era Paris, complete with Django Reinhardt style guitar fretwork. The pound of 4/4 house brings things closer to now, while relatively frivolous lyrics highlight Dunklenbunt’s obsession with spices. Remixes of the main single from his last album Morgenlandfahrt, ‘Chocolate Butterfly’, make up a good bulk of the rest of the single. Stefano Miele lays a robust house beat over wobbly bass and twinkling instrumentation while Vono Box DJs choose an almost breakbeat template with Plump DJs style bottom end and stuttering vocal samples. Solo Moderna opts for an uptempo, dubby halfstep, giving the remixes an overall sense of variety, touching on a range of dancefloor staples.
The real highlight, though, is the inclusion of the 10 minute ‘Chocolate Butterfly Improvisations’. Here it’s just Lindemann and his piano, stripped of all the production, improvising around the main movements in ‘Chocolate Butterfly’. There’s a remarkably haunting quality to the performance and its recording (listen for the birdsong out the windows) which, on the surface, might be at odds with the rest of the release, but actually serves to add greater depth and tension to the joyousness of the dance tracks.
Adrian Elmer
*
