Thomas Fehlmann cuts beats like a mason lays bricks: slowly and steadily, with an exacting precision that belies the hyperactive tendencies of his oft-frantic, House-heavy peers. Since his start with proto-Euro kings, The Orb, Fehlmann has succeeded at downmixing the oft-hard hitting electronica genre, flipping the switch to 33 rpm to fashion a singular type of sunrise techno - soft pillows of pre-dawn sound, comedown soundtracks for the early-morning club crowd.

The aptly named Lowflow continues this sleepy-eyed trend. Its 13 tracks transmute to a single dreamy stream, one subsonic strain morphing into the next, each awash in its own various delays, Doppler effects and fuzzy textures. Throughout the record, Fehlmann's weapons of choice carve out a slim neutral ground between The Orb's ambient head trips and the glitchy instrumentals plied by Scott Herren. Fehlmann shows himself to be a pioneer of early electronica whose greatest talents now seem rooted in progressive rap rhythms. Here's hoping his next venture finds him a worthy MC with a low flow to match.

Noah Pais
February 8, 2005