Record Review - Pantha du Prince: Black Noise

Rough Trade

It’s a good time to be an electronic producer. Thanks to extensive coverage by indie and even some mainstream media outlets, artists like Four Tet, the Field, and Burial have enjoyed recent success and recognition outside the genre’s notoriously niche-y, constrictive walls. Germany’s Hendrik Weber, aka Pantha du Prince, has dropped Black Noise, an accessible, celebratory record of minimalist techno, at a time when the electro stars are converging, and how. Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox shows up on “Stick to My Side,” a shimmering crossover jam that would sound at home amid the indie-pop rotation of any college radio station. Thing is, not only do folks like Weber benefit from the newfound appreciation for their brand of work, but we as listeners do, too: Where crate-digging (or file-sharing) was once the norm, it’s easy now to find stuff like Black Noise at any neighborhood shop. It’s a good thing. 4 out of 5 stars.