Onur Ozer 'Watergate 01'

Onur Özer
Watergate 01
(Watergate Records)

I have to confess a prejudice at the outset. I’m deeply suspicious of Onur Özer. First of all, he’s pretty. And he has a "haircut". Okay, so that’s just my problem with him. But then there are the serious issues. Özer is amusical. His EPs on the sometimes-excellent Vakant consist of what happens when you scroll through some soft-synth presets until you find the "spooky" near-Eastern sound which you then doodle a melody on through on your midi keyboard. Next? Underpin the whole she-bang with a micro-house rhythm, then squeeze it through a ping-pong delay. Presto – you have an Özer record.

In these ways, Özer represents all that’s dreadful about the dreaded minimal, but when you’re smashingly mashed and dancing around at 9am as the sun is coming up at Berlin’s Watergate, it might make sense. And as a document of that moment in time, and of the unique conjunction of sounds and styles being played out in that context, Özer’s Watergate 01 mix offers an accurate and at times interesting snapshot. In other words, if somebody asks you, "What the hell is minimal?" You could give them this disc, with something like the caveat above, as a mixed reply.

The mix begins by rolling through a strumming microhouse vibe, Sammy Dee’s ‘Purple Hummer’ segueing neatly into Cassy’s ‘April’. Things get momentarily interesting with Simon Blakemore’s old cult classic ‘Suspicion’, replete with its ‘Cronulla background’ (police sirens, splashing waves) and a driving bassline. Not long after that, it all starts to kick in, as everything bends and tends towards dark and driving grooves and atmosphere. But not before breaking out with a ridiculous bouzouki solo – out of time and phase – in the middle of Jens Zimmermann’s ‘C30’. In many ways, this is the Özer moment: arabesque flourishes over clicky microrhythms is more or less this guy’s contribution to music. But this is the low point, and the remainder of the mix is solid: each selection is appropriate for what proceeds it, and while to the lack of a clear peak or dissipation could (in other genres) demonstrate a failure to punctuate, here it’s what makes it so perfectly, aptly minimal.
 
The zeitgeist may have already passed minimal by, and Özer certainly is no musical talent, but nonetheless, this mix exemplifies a style, a club, and a moment in time. And that has some value.

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