There were some great compilations I managed to track down last year and this, by far, is the best of them. GAS were a german ambient-minimalist techno group doing their thing in the late 1990′s. I first became aware of them as I guess many did when head Kompakt honcho Wolfgang Voight made it on to the cover of The Wire. I dismissed ever listening to GAS at the time because if I’m honest Voight just had one of those dodgy Euro-track haircuts that screamed that his thing probably wasn’t going to be my thing. But fast forward six months and I’ve become a sucker for minimalist techno and I decided to track it down. I don’t know why it it works for me so well because as music it’s almost barely there but when I turn it off I realise that my whole space has been awash with the most sublime beats that their absence is as noticeable as turning off Merzbow mid scree. Nah Und fern is a compilation of all four albums they produced but which had iunfortunately gone out of print. The four albums in question are GAS, Zauberberg, Konigsforest and Pop. I don’t have a favourite between them but if you have any desire to hear techno as art then you should get this.
