In the late 90s and early 00s I was a big fan of trip-hop, ambient, big beat, and the more chilled side of dance music. This is why there is a huge gap in my indie knowledge (sorry Teenage Fanclub and Super Furry Animals, I love you now). I once came home to find I’d been burgled and the thieves got away with about 200 CDs (carried off in my own bags) and I had to laugh wryly as I imagined a second-hand record store owner scratching his head in bewilderment as titles from Dimitri From Paris, Étienne De Crécy, A Forest Mighty Black, the Ballistic Brothers, Dogs Deluxe, Groove Armada, Nitin Sawney, Talvin Singh and more poured out onto the counter. Sadly, I had not heard anything by A Certain Frank until I received the PR email but, had I heard the original 2001 release of Nothing it would definitely have been one of the CDs stolen from my flat.
A Certain Frank are Frank Fenstermacher and Kurt Dahlke who emerged from a fertile musical landscape in 1990s Düsseldorf. Nothing has barely dated, and if you are fan of Kruder & Dorfmeister, who celebrated 25 years of The K&D Sessions in 2024 and are currently touring 30 years since their seminal DJ Kicks album, then you’ll be familiar with the downtempo feeling that permeates the album. Take the opening title track, all phasing hi-hats and glitchy snare punching through a woozy backing that pitches marshmallow softness with gravel and a great repeated vocal line that wanders in and out.
‘Peace Again’ follows like a spy theme for a gritty 70s cop drama – think Lalo Schifrin doing Dirty Harry but pushing electronics to the fore – with trigger stabs like gunshots throughout. ‘Donde Vas’ stays in the same vein and could be the precursor to a car chase in Bullitt. ‘Secret Love’ is an underwater ballet with synth bubbles and clam shell snare, followed by ‘Without You’ which could accompany shots of a night-time drift out of the souk in Marrakech and into the desert under a star-filled sky.
There is something luxurious about Nothing, like so many of the best downtempo music it is not straining to prove anything but allows generated sounds and electronic manipulation to inhabit the same space as the analogue, with great use of vocals from Mai Lingani, Karin Knipphals, and Fenstermacher. While other German electronic music was leaning hard into techno Dahlke and Fenstermacher “turned toward reduction, atmosphere, and subtle reconstruction.”
There are glitchy dub-vibes and layers of velvet jazz held in beautiful suspension by sounds that are put together with gentle precision while never sacrificing the soul of the album. It’s a testament to the good work of the Bureau B label that they have remastered and reissued the album with the same attention to detail that they put into all their releases. The album sparkles with class and, despite being a quarter of a century old, shows no sign of its age. A Certain Frank definitely made something out of Nothing.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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