Customer Reviews

Happy Birthday

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mixing up everything from IDM to dub, electro and hip-hop, Modeselektor puts out a truly fun album that keeps me bopping up and down. There is evident humor in some of the tracks and that's exactly that attitude that forces me to spin Happy Birthday! on for a fun ride. Not to mention an excellent array of featured artists. We've got French hip-hop from Paris, TTC; some Dominican style fun vocals from Paul St. Hilaire; throw-your-hands-up party rap from Puppetmastaz; and an absolutely excellent track featuring Thom Yorke, titled The White Flash. [Side note: the 2008 12" Happy Birthday! Remixed #1, features The White Flash remixed by Trentemøller - it's worth picking up just for the B side]. Modeselektor returned the favor and remixed Thom Yorke's Skip Divided from The Eraser (XL, 2008). Modeselektor is a Berlin based duo of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. When Bronsert and Szary initially met in 1992, they were producing music under alias Fundamental Knowledge. In 1995 they renamed themselves to Modeselektor, after a function on Roland RE-201's effects module. Another interesting side project is called Moderat - a collaboration between Modeselektor and Apparat which only saw a single 12" on BPitch Control back in 2003 and now returned with a track on Happy Birthday! titled Let Your Love Grow. This is Modeselektor's sophomore release, named in anticipation of the unplanned accidentally synchronized births of the duo's children. Modeselektor is not afraid to whip any stylistic trend back into its cage. From four-to-the-floor acid infused electro beats, to heavy grime, this is already a favorite party album. In the middle of the album, after a heavy beat from The Black Block, my ear pricks up to a familiar melody. The track's name is The First Rebirth, and I immediately recognize the classic trance anthem from 1993 under the same name, written by Jones & Stephenson for Bonzai Records (and I still have my copy - actually just dug up Commander Tom's '94 Remix on Prolekult). The album finishes up with an excellent up-beat glitchy hard breaks featuring Maxïmo Park. Pick up this album and treat yourself to one of my 2007 favorites! Recommended if you enjoy Boxcutter, Pole, Plaid, Funkstörung and Mouse on Mars. Be sure to grab Modeselektor's 2005 debut, Hello Mom! p.s. Excellent popping music!

There are a few tracks that are brilliant, breaking new ground, fusing together various genres, but unfortunately these moments are brief, and then we delve back into a more predictable pattern. I wish they had stayed in the moments of brilliance a little longer.

Love Modeskeltor I would say about 3/4 of the songs on this CD are awesome if your into techno which is rare for a techno cd.

a vulcan mind meld of various influences seemlessly brought together....and like a vulcan mind meld - an emotional ride....a hot mess....(just like my ex gf).....

this album is less idm and more dubstep on pharmaceutical grade racemic amphetamine.

"custom suited for your needs"......

i feel my mesolimbic reward pathway...rewarded...."boom!"

ah...the ex-gf is missing out....

my yes albums are collecting dust....

i need to go shake my ass now.

I heard of this album just after it came out, and had heard they do a track with Thom Yorke on vocals 'The White Flash', which is a great track - but this is just a minor highlight of what is a solid, diverse and brilliantly original album.

The German duo have created a superbly produced album that fuses electro and techno with breaks and hip hop elements, all with a fresh, young sound. There's a bunch of different and interesting vocalists on it - including French hip hop artists TTC. There's also a track featuring Apparat - who they went on to do the also great collaboration album 'Moderat' with.

The track Godspeed is absolutely massive, with its huge bassline and rocks the party anytime I drop it. I quite liked the album, but then after actually getting to see them live at Coachella - I became a massive fan - they are wicked live - blew my mind. I actually had downloaded a copy at first - but I liked the album so much I went and bought it on CD too - the bizarre abstract sleeve artwork is pretty cool too :) A expansive range of tunes, some banging, with phat, cut up beats, some more mellow. Check it out - if you like good music, you will like this.

I have to say, this is one of my favorite albums at the moment. Just about every song on the album I would give 5 out of 5 stars, except for tha last song, "(I Can't Sleep) Without Music". It is just really out of place with the rest of the album. Other than that, it's great.

This is one of my favorite albums right now. The tracks with TTC are pretty good, too. Their other album, "Hello Mom! " is also a good one, if not better, than this.

Nice kickin beatz, fat baselines. These guys are doing some cool stuff. Enjoyed the album. They take techno to a different level. I really feel this 4 out of 5 though. There were a couple of tracks I would throw on the dancefloor but I feel like they can still push it further.

Wow - no reviews yet?! Thought I'd chime in, to help prod anybody still on the fence, or completely in the dark about MODESELEKTOR. Short and sweet - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! more than fulfills the promise that HELLO MOM! made a couple years back. This is electronic music - to be more precise 'electro-krunk' (kind of a newly made up word, but having nothing in common with the trash that is American 'krunk'), and to be even more precise it is 'electro-krunk' from Berlin. Ahh, but that is pigeonholing it a bit - probably just safer to say that this is from the noisier side of electronica, having songs composed with a beginning-middle-end structure (no softly dawdling eight-minute ambient epics here). Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary have made another highly listenable album, but one that also seems to be tinged with a more professional edge. The great T. Yorke appears along with other artists such as TTC, Maximo Park, Otto von Schirach, and Puppetmastaz on a handful of the songs, though the majority of them are 'instrumental.' Again, if you're a fan of this type of music then you will more than likely realize that this was the best release of it's kind this year. But even if you don't know that much about MODESELEKTOR I would suggest you at least give this album a sample - beneath the noisy, machine-like veneer is a classically orchestrated album of highs and lows (in feeling) that works it's way to a more than satisfying conclusion. I will also venture to state that the album has about 7(!) stand out tracks that almost everyone (tyke to grandparent, country to rap enthusiast) will enjoy - come on, even the most jaded music listener is happy to have 2-3 stand out tracks on their favorite artist's latest release ~~~ CHECK IT OUT!

Incredible CD. This is probably one of the best EDM albums of 2007. Modeselektor is going the opposite way most of the music producers are going these days: they are bringing maximized tracks. With a lot of organic, trashy sounds, great vocals, humour, and some of the best featured artists one could wish for. The various rhythms and drum patterns make every single track a track worth listening to. A must have for every EDM lover out there!

EDM-Electronic Dance Music