Minus has released a first rate selection of home grown artist albums over the past 18 months, with Heartthrob, False and Gaiser all creating long players of real substance and this trend is set to continue in 2009 with arguably the label’s most significant release of recent times. Louderbach’s long awaited second album Autumn represents another jump in the evolutionary cycle of minimal techno, having developed from the largely instrumental project that gave us Enemy Love into a fully-fledged song based outfit. As a result, Autumn has a much deeper feel than its predecessor and indeed breaks new ground, with the dark metaphors of Gibby Miller’s often chilling vocal performances fitting hand-in-glove with the ominous landscapes and broken architecture that Troy Pierce constructs so effectively. Drawing on shared influences such as Bauhaus, Coil and Joy Division, the duo have conceived an album of emotional depth and exquisite detail, appropriating the best elements of these early-eighties pioneers and reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens to achieve a perfect balance of style and content. It’s the result of an unspoken understanding that spans thousands of miles from their respective homes in L.A. and Berlin and this distant intimacy is a naturally occurring theme throughout the album, manifesting itself as dark, twilight tales of melancholy romance, burning obsession and the slow, disintegration of desire.
