Albert Van Abbe – No Comment_0002

- Sam Louis (Resident Advisor) - No Comment 002 marks the second release from the new Dutch imprint from Albert van Abbe, and it's a lot like the first salvo. It's austere, it comes with a strong remix and there's a wonderful little ambient number on the B-side. It's hardly a surprise that someone that titles their tracks things like "NCS 0007121210" might have a thing for order and/or concepts. Luckily, such constraints don't get in the way of the music. The aforementioned "NCS" rides a line between Drexicyan electro funk and Raster-Noton bleep, and finds a submerged melancholy in the process. The recently resurgent Sleeparchive, meanwhile, toughens van Abbe's original up and straightens him out. Like the age-old cliché about Kraftwerk, the secret is in how funky he makes the absence of funk sound. "P4S 1013291010," like its No Comment 001 brother "P4S 1000291010" goes even further toward the conceptual, playing with synthesis in a way that hasn't been heard since the last time Alva Noto got into a room with a modem. That he imbues it with such pathos is what makes No Comment and van Abbe definite names to watch.

- Boomkat review - ''Deliciously stoic Techno workouts from Dutch producer and No Comment label curator Albert Van Abbe, and Sleeparchive! There's something unmistakably Lowlands about the darkly muted intent of Van Abbe's original, reminding of classic Bunker releases from Syncom Data or the tunnel drive of Delta Funktionen. Sleeparchive may have been dormant for the last few years (the CLR remix excepted) but has lost none of his vigour and tight-lipped approach, remodelling 'NCS_007121210' with glitchy edit interruptions applied to welting bass and typewriter hi-hats.''