Trentemoller – The Last Resort (Pokerflat/Stomp)

Andreas Trentemoller’s debut album The Last Resort is a curious beast. From someone who is so hyped and does remixes for major label pop acts it is also quite surprising. It comes as a double CD – the second CD is a collection of his reasonably standard minimal/progressive house 12″ tracks so far and is probably best skipped for regular readers. The first CD – the album proper, though, is actually quite interesting. Mining Aphex Twin-ish glockenspiel IDM on Miss You, doing dub techno on Evil Dub and Nightwalker, and with more than a hint of Morricone meets Depeche Mode on other tracks, it appears that Trentemøller has expanded his pallette of sounds and styles away from the pressure of the dancefloor. None of this is essential material – much of the sweeping atmospherics and melodic progressions simply release memories, but The Last Resort may act as a gateway release for those attracted by his club material into other sounds, artists and labels.