THE/DAS Exit Strategies 2LP

OPAKOWANIE: GATEFOLD

Berlin duo The/Das are to release their sophomore album, Exit Strategies,
on Life And Death in September 2017, with a first EP from it,
›Drug Dilling‹, coming in July. The absorbing 12-tracker is the result of
a period of searching that finds the new line-up of Fabian Fenk and
Philipp Koller combine multiple ideas, layers, fragments and sounds
and refine their distinct idea of techno tenderness. It makes for a
soothing and escapist 60 minute listen that works as well at home, on
headphones, as it does loud in the club.
The new album is a perfect blend of the pair’s Berlin techno roots with
a devotion to organic sounds and cinematic details that makes it a real
trip for the head, heart and heel from start to finish. More house
influenced than their previous works on labels like Sinnbus, Krakatau
and DJ Tennis’s Life And Death, their artistic vision ties it all together as
the duo continues to push each other, bounce ideas back and forth
and eventually distill them into something fresh and new.
The album itself was an unhurried affair made from various sketched
starting points collected over three years of research. Influenced from
their travels, a decade of DJ gigs and shared musical experiences,
they then headed into the studio for three intense months to arrange,
rework, jam out new material, edit and collate all their sounds and
ideas. Finally, they spent three weeks behind the mixing desk,
shaping the whole lot into one complete form. Made using an array of
drum machines and with a new focus on sampling, the album has
experimental loops, sounds and rhythms imbued within, and lyrics
that act as textural and emotive interventions, adding to the overall
flow.