Even on a label dominated by techno-pop fetishists, gushy romantics, and campy sentimentalists, it doesn’t take a giant leap of imagination to picture Justus Köhncke as Kompakt’s resident odd man out. A meandering blend of naval-gazing techno, burlesque pop, and German-accented disco, his 2002 debut Was Ist Musik was a sometimes difficult record that felt like a private, closed-door articulation of the same sensibility his labelmates were dutifully trying to popularize at the time.

Since then, Köhncke has gone on to enjoy his fair share of commercial high points as well (most notably with 2004′s still pretty brilliant “Timecode”, easily his defining single), but his seeming refusal to elaborate further on any of those singular moments paints a picture of an artist for whom success is more often than not accidental.

While Safe & Sound marks Köhncke’s first full-length since 2005′s Doppelleben, there’s nothing celebratory or assertive about his return. If anything, S&S is a bloody-mindedly unassuming record; it’s almost as if Köhncke made a conscious decision to fly low. With the exception of the spangly “Parage”, one of the album’s pastichey highlights, and the shimmering “Molybdan”, Köhncke’s trance-inflected revisiting of “Timecode”‘s tick-tocking rhythms, everything on Safe & Sound lingers shyly in the mid-tempo range, much of it threatening to lift off but never leaving the ground.

Those without much patience for Köhncke’s hit-and-miss predilection for kitsch German-sung pop will be pleased to know that, having recently completed a string of Iggy Pop and Velvet Underground covers under the pseudonym Kinky Justice, he’s completely done away with the on-album vocal sidebars. In their absence, though, his productions seem to have taken a more conversational tone.

Gone is the sleek, streamlined retro disco that categorized a lot of Doppelleben; the pulse on Safe & Sound is much more finely rendered, its level of detail and gristle implying a sturdy reverence for early 1990s techno. In fact, from the skittering patterns and analog synth washes of opener “Yacht” (which rests on a tantalizing sliver of Grace Jones’ “Slave To The Rhythm”) to the chattering, almost industrial rhythms of the dark and metallic “$26″ to the lumbering album closer and title track, Safe & Sound’s most recurring touchpoint is probably early IDM.

Of course, this being Köhncke, the quiet skill and confidence with which it’s all assembled is hard to deny. Even more so than with his previous outings, there’s a subtle craft and a generosity of at the heart of Safe & Sound that emerges with repeated listens. As evidenced by the album’s centerpiece, a buzzing cover of Michael Rother’s (Kraftwerk, Neu!, Harmonia) “Feuerland”, this is very much a producer’s record. With its refined palette of sounds, sonic textures, and subtle melodic hooks, it’s an easy enough record to like.

Nonetheless, those who were hoping for an album full of the slow-burning disco that Köhncke has proven such a skill for in the past might come away feeling a little underwhelmed. But I suppose that’s part of the deal with any Köhncke record; the man has such a wide array of tastes and influences that some are always going to be left undeveloped.

— Mark Pytlik, February 26, 2008