Hug: Heroes

Hug: should sound pretty warm, right? Producer John Dahlbäck’s fuzzy pseudonym had me fearing that Heroes would be one of those folktronic cuddlecore jaunts in which some yo-yo with a laptop tries to fool us into thinking he’s a six-man live band. Turns out that this full-length, like Dahlbäck’s bountiful, multiple-alias back catalogue, teems with pulse-quickening dancefloor-packers. Without a doubt, one could work up a stank-nasty sweat to these yearning 4/4 throbs and wiggy analog synth figures — in other words, it would be pretty gross if we actually hugged after gyrating to “My Dinosaur”. But like most of Kompakt’s fleet, this one also floats at home or on the subway, especially when unheimlich percussive drop-outs and sci-fi gurgles interject. On the whole, the disc plays out like Trentemoller wearing a pair of clown shoes. Home-listener-friendly minimal techno is so totally 2007’s hipster metal.