[Nonplus+ Records]

Is Kassem Mosse getting predictable? With the glut of releases that has accompanied the German producer’s well-deserved rise to fame, one might worry that ubiquity has tarnished the once-irresistible rarity of a new Kassem Mosse plate. Gunnar Wendel’s second release on Instra:mental’s NonPlus+ label manages to both affirm and deny this. True, it sounds like Kassem Mosse: you know the kind of mood and sounds to expect — spare, naked atmospheres and vintage drums. But then again, “Enoha” is one of the most uncharacteristic tracks Mosse has ever done; and if we want to get really technical, it’s basically Mosse-goes-mnml. The bass line is unusually rubbery, and its sometimes gluey consistency seems to force the toms to snap back into place, lending the whole thing an elastic tech-house feel worlds apart from Mosse’s usual mechanistic autonomy. Of course, this is the same guy who gave us a bevy of memorable but untitled tracks, so we’re treated to a slowly mutating nine minutes of organically expanding and contracting chords, globs of abrasive frequencies that rub against the otherwise inviting beat.

Nothing else on the EP quite measures up to the WTF factor of “Enoha,” but they’re all typically oddball Mosse tracks nonetheless. “GSO2” centers on an off-center, implacable throb like it’s tiptoeing to avoid the foreboding gurgles underneath, while “Inswanns” plays with early-Aphex dulcet tones and fleeting chords that sound like a pure resonance distilled. The EP’s final track “Sleepworking” appropriately brings us to a new level of narcolepsy from the producer who basically started the whole “narco-house” thing, with a cycling snare progression that sounds like it’s tripping over itself in trying to keep slow enough to match the slurred carelessness of a wanton kick drum. The song’s somewhat chirpy, barely-there chord progression is a cutting contrast on top of one of the most unfriendly structures Wendel has ever erected. So no, Mosse hasn’t quite gotten predictable yet, as he’s still finding ways to turn house into his uniquely tortured vision of machine music.