Ulrich Schnauss - Missing Deadlines (Selected Remixes)

What makes Missing Deadlines great is that, if you knew neither Ulrich Schnauss’ signature style nor any of the remixed original tracks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this an album of entirely new material, so subtle are the Kiel-born producer’s reimaginings. Rather than tearing out a vocal and gluing it sloppily onto a relentless house beat, Schnauss delves deep into the original songs, grabs their common threads of shoegaze, krautrock and trance, ties them together and gently pulls them in new directions.

Despite veering from the subterranean, head massaging rave of Mahogany’s Supervitesse, to the delicately beautiful version of Aus’s Hallo, the album is held together by modulating synth pads which softly lap at the songs like waves against a Caribbean island. To call an album ineffable is always a bit of a journalistic cop out, but with Missing Deadlines, it deservedly whets the appetite. A lovely piece of work. [Joe Barton]