Dekmantel Podcast 088 - Florian Kupfer

Though very much part of the lo-fi techno movement of recent years, Florian Kupfer’s past includes six years as a soprano choir boy. As such it is no surprise there is a real sense of enchanting grace to his work, which most often comes on LIES, but also on Russian Torrent Versions and Wille Burns’ W.T. Records. Whether mechanical and menacing or sombre and heartbreaking, his grainy grooves always manage to cast a spell on the dance floor. The mix he serves up here makes scant use of drums, especially early on where lingering piano solos, looming ambience and foreboding acoustic guitars add up to something incredibly powerful despite being so sparse. Grinding drums and malfunctioning synths eventually take over and work to soundtrack a desolate industrial space where all traces of humanity have long gone. It’s bleak but beautiful, much like everything to which Kupfer puts his name.