Gregor Tresher: A Thousand Nights

The most notable thing that one could say about Gregor Tresher’s full-length debut A Thousand Nights is that it feels like it takes pretty close to that much time to listen to the whole thing. At 80:10, it will very likely be the longest CD in your collection. For those 80-plus minutes, you’ll hear examples of just about every subgenre of electronic music that involves a constant kick-drum backbeat. Microhouse is represented, minimal techno is here, shades of IDM make their way into the mix, and some of the better tracks are straight-up techno. Tresher is at his best when he’s introducing sparse melodic elements into the mix as on the gently ascending synthwork of the title track and the vaguely new wave-y synth interplay on “Painkiller”, though neither track sticks out as anything destined to be a classic of the scene. Add to that the fact that too often Tresher’s work falls into a “find a beat and stick with it for eight minutes” routine and you have an album that just can’t cut it amongst the innovators and leaders of the genres he’s touching on. If there’s a true positive to be gleaned from A Thousand Nights, it’s that everything is impeccably produced, the sound of it is clean, clear, and professional. Still, that’ll only be enough to provide the background music for a DJ’s 15-minute break. A Thousand Nights isn’t offensive by any means, but for all of its girth, it’s also nowhere near essential.