Dapayk & Padberg - "Black Beauty"

Dapayk & Padberg - As You Please (Mo's Ferry 2007)

Dapayk & Padberg - Black Beauty / Mo's Ferry

While hip-hop may have had a bit of a slump this year, one genre that has been firing on all cylinders all year long is electro. This Bliss and From Here We Go Sublime both hit early on like stealth fighters back when F-117s were something to be feared. There was subtractiveLAD. There was Chromophobia. Great plates by Robot Needs Oil and Samim and Matthew Dear. It's just been one after another... And adding to this giant heap of sweet beats is the Berlin team of Niklas Worgt and Eva Padberg, aka Dapayk & Padberg. 2007 has found its Silent Shout.

Er, sort of. Credit where credit's due, of course: Philip Sherburne, in his infinitely broke-ass, globetrotting wisdom gave the heads-up on Black Beauty earlier this month. He's right insofar as Padberg uses pitch-shifting vocals that have a distorted, alien feel similar in feeling to Karin Dreijer's work last year, but that singular element makes this the sine qua non of the comparison; what lies beyond Padberg's altered voice is a totally different album, grime and urban grit to the core vis-à-vis Silent Shout's rural forestechno.

Q: "Why don't we do it in bed, baby?"
A: "Because the living room's empty, bitch."

And it's off to the races! "Noerti" isn't exactly "Marble House," then, is it? The very first thing you hear on Black Beauty is a clear indication that, even if the music is reminiscent of The Knife, the ethos and the attitude behind it just... aren't. At all. "Just keep it dirty, dirty a bit," Padberg sarcastically intones in a half-singing, half-complaining voice that seems perfectly suited for a part-time supermodel.

Which seems like a good cue to give you a little more information about Worgt and Padberg. Worgt actually founded Mo's Ferry in 2000 in Erfurt, but moved to Berlin and has operated both on his own primarily as Dapayk Solo and Marek Bois but also as Dredl Kibosh and Frauds in White in his early days. For her part, Padberg is a bombshell supermodel with a hefty CV: FHM's "Sexiest Woman in the World" in 2005 (while acting as the face for Kia(?!)), ambassadress for UNICEF in 2006, actress in the film "Dungeon Siege" this year. Hey, we all make mistakes. While her modeling career is admirable and her movie career is, um, blossoming, it's the music career that concerns us here. After a decade of dating, Worgt and Padberg married in July of '06.

This matters because, unless you're some kind of creep who gets off on incestuous innuendo, Worgt and Padberg's sexual tension provides an interesting element that Olof and Karin lacked. The title-track is a good example, its clicking minimalism buoyed by deadpan refrains from both Niklas and Eva. It's a seductive song that cleverly incorporates handclaps for the human element that's sure to make it a hit in Die Stadt. But rare is the occasion that the two do not feel in competition for the spotlight of a song: If Padberg isn't whipping herself up into a warped frenzy on "Pantomine Horse," she's giving color to the indistinct monotone whispering that Worgt provides for tracks like "Sister" or "Theiss."

"Make it Up" is another strong song with an elastic moon bounce to it that feels like an Ibiza club trip wrapped up neatly into six minutes. "Island" is appropriately named for its Caribbean feel, and here again we're seeing the strength of Worgt's minimalist tendencies taken to different creative ends. If Jamaica ever discovers deep tech, it ought to sound something like this. All of the songs are distinguishable, and yet the grander "sound" of the album is coherent, not a bunch of tracks thrown together.

The proof is in the gorgeous closer presented here, an album that cleanses the palate of the dirty sex and black beauty-induced blur of the night before to bring sunlight and the promise of living to see another day and do it all again come nightfall. Hearing this at sunrise really is the best time, but it's a sweeping, emotional song of synths that bring warmth to the usually cold thuds dominating the Dapayk sound; meanwhile, Padberg's best vocal performance since the front of the album highlights the finality of the whole thing. The nail in the coffin: After an album full of dynamic tension where it feels like Worgt and Padberg are in constant creative competition, "As You Please" is a masterstroke concession (and recession) for both.

This is an exquisitely crafted album by two artists who have been on the rise since 2003's "Goddess" 12. Though I would also urge you to check up on 2005's debut fuller Close Up, it's Black Beauty that heralds the arrival of yet another Minimal Electro Album of the Year in a year full of Albums of the Year. Don't miss out on this just because the term gets bandied about too much from the likes of chumps like me. Black Beauty is pristine glass, is crystal, is crank, is ice, is guaranteed satisfaction waiting for you.