Kruder & Dorfmeister K&D Sessions CD - Import

While Kruder & Dorfmeister remained unwilling to release a "proper" album even several years after their breakout, The K&D Sessions is proof positive they're still doing what they do best -- making the most blissfully blunted music the world has ever heard. The two-disc set is first and foremost a K&D mix album, to add to the two they'd already released. It's also a remix collection, though; each of the 21 tracks are reworkings (by Kruder, Dorfmeister, or both) for artists including Roni Size, Lamb, David Holmes, Bomb the Bass, Depeche Mode, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Sofa Surfers, and Count Basic. As could be expected, The K&D Sessions is earthy, downtempo and acid-based, even moreso than previous mix albums by the pair. The pinging vocal samples that echo through the duo's remix of "Bug Powder Dust" by Bomb the Bass prove amply that Kruder & Dorfmeister have a better handle on 21st-century dub techniques than any other producers out there, and the impossibly deep beats on almost every track simply couldn't have been recorded by any other act. Yes, it's a bit of a shame that the pair still hadn't released an album of own-productions, but with (re)mix albums this stunning and accomplished, Kruder & Dorfmeister hardly needed one to gain respect. ~ John Bush
Viennese beatsmiths Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister prove themselves to be DJs with a difference on this stellar double-disc set. Instead of simply stringing together favorite tunes of the moment, K&D assemble something much more permanent and notable by gathering their own remixes for both well-known artists (Depeche Mode, Bone Thugs 'N Harmony, Roni Size, Bomb The Bass) and European cult acts (Rainer Trnby Trio, Count Basic, Knowtoryous, Sofa Surfers, Mama Oliver). The unifying thread can be called the K&D sound--a playfully off-beat and bass-heavy funk so singular that it instantly assimilates any piece of music into the K&D canon.
The K&D sound is a great equalizer, elevating all music to a common plateau of funked-up metagroove. Kruder & Dorfmeister see to it that vocal drum-and-bass, shady dub, frazzled big-beat, bouncy hip-hop, and down-tempo slink alike are pumped up with anabolic breakbeats, sizzling jazz breaks, and serpentine basslines. Already indispensable as a compact collection of K&D's rarest mixes, K&D SESSIONS goes one further, giving it up for two breathless hours and redefining the state of the art of trip-hop in the image of its Austrian saviors.

Known for their unique style of scrambling together Latin,dub, drum'n'bass and downtempo beats, 'The K & D Sessions'is a concentrated collection of their best remixes from thelast few years of tracks by Depeche Mode, Roni Size, DavidHolmes, Lamb, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Strange Cargo, Bomb TheBass, Alex Reece and others. 21 tracks. Double gatefolddigipak. 1998 Stud!o K7 release.Spin (p.134) - "[With] an airbrushed sound that was heavy and heady in a club, but elegantly chill enough for background music."
CMJ (1/10/00, p.21) - Included in CMJ's "RPM '99 Top 5" - "...finely crafted K&D remixes [which] became a benchmark for downbeat electronic music, and a barometer of the success of the stoney lounge sound."