It may not be obvious to casual adherents of electronic music, but there’s a gaping chasm worth of difference between artful repetition and flogging a dead horse. It’s this nuance which has consistently devalued the loopy “Mannheim sound” offered by labels like 8bit, Plastic City, and Cécille. Functionality is fine — in fact, club music couldn’t exist without it — but it can be delivered much more excitingly than by picking a simple groove and clinging relentlessly to it. How then fares the Once In A Blue Moon EP, the latest record from Mannheim youngster Steffen Deux, a man who’s twice appeared on 8bit? Better than you might think, actually.
The bass and beat combo that underpins “Cold Water” isn’t too bad at all. The former is a tad funky and has just enough length to coax dancers to move, rather than tactlessly commanding them. And while the latter is pretty vanilla, Deux does make an effort to throw in new claps and hats every so often, meaning it holds attention long enough for the shortish hook to enter. It’s a pretty, flute-like loop, which sways back and forth over a breathy woman intoning the song’s title. “Ma Home” is less inspiring, being set upon a rather mundane foundation and using blaxploitation vocals to do the work something chord-based probably should have. Here, the only real attempts at melody are a series of whimsical swooshes somewhere near the mid-section. Luca C’s remix fares much better in this respect, though it still feels a little inconsequential. The organ-like pads which bolster much of his version feel thin and pallid, while the serene, harp-like plucks that appear in the mid-section have far too little airtime to really make an impact. Once In A Blue Moon may not be enthralling, but via the passable “Cold Water,” it does prove the Mannheim sound isn’t inherently broken.
