Since his first 12” ‘Draconia’ in 2005 on Wagon Repair (they of Mathew Jonson, Cobblestone Jazz, Deadbeat, Hrdvsion et al) and last seen on FLY with the Konrad Black Mix of ‘Honeymoon’s Over’, Konrad Black (aka Todd Shillington) has upped decks from Vancouver and has moved to the dark side of Berlin where he regualarly DJs.

Little wonder then that the Watergate club would want his to mix their third club-branded CD mixed by him; this seems to be the place to be right now as friend of FLY, Florian Meindl played at Watergate a couple of months ago.

Mr. Black might not be the biggest name in the DJ box but as one of the founders of Wagon Repair he’s going to be interest in whatever he does; especially a compilation mix CD. And the first track is a corker, ‘Nachttarif’ (that’s ‘Night-time Rate’ to me and you) is a high-speed techno-train of a trip that’s got all the right stereo synth efx going on.

But then it takes a time to get back up to full speed again as D. Diggler’s ‘Silicone’ is relatively stuck in a tunnel before the ping-pong madness of Raudive and then Onur Özer (he of Westgate 1) on the remix of Loco Dive’s ‘Breakfast At Nina’s’ (big beefy bass that’s really messy, love it).

Black’s gets housey with Seth Troxler & Matthew Dear’s “genuinely collaborative” ‘Hurt’ that’s really quite disturbing and it follows Black’s own collaboration wiht Martin Buttrich on ‘Siamese Connection’ (more train comparisions).

With tracks called ‘Draconia’ and ‘Medusa Smile’, Black’s music has been described at having “a Byronesque quality” but when he’s got free-range on a compilation CD, there does seem some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel with Stephan G’s dub-house ‘Shass’ and the only vocal of Louderbach’s stunning ‘Shine’ with some killer synth shards ripping into your ears.

Ben Klock’s ‘Sub Zero’ and Discogs’s ‘Real Love’ build us up to the climax of a Black Remix and Wagon Repair’s Mathew Jonson with his ‘Walking On The Hands That Follow Me’ which is little a little chill-out room all on its own.

And if you are going to Watergate, you may as well go the whole way and get their rather splendid t-shirts.

Reviewed: Konrad Black - Watergate 03 (Watergate Records) Cat. No: WG 003 Release date: 18th May 2009
Tracklisting:
01 Alex Cortex - Nachttarif (7:29)
02 D.Diggler - Silicone (3:06)
03 Raudive - Cone (Edit) (4:51)
04 Loco Dice - Breakfast At Nina (Onur Özer Mix) (3:06)
05 Konrad Black & Martin Buttrich - Untitled (6:27)
06 Matthew Dear & Seth Troxler - Hurt (3:52)
07 Stephan G - Shass (4:08)
08 Queen Atom - Enemy Of Time (Cesare vs Disorder On Time Edit) (3:52)
09 Louderbach - Shine (Thrill Cosby Broken Door Mix Vox. Dilo) (5:17)
10 Ben Klock - Sub Zero (4:39)
11 Discogs - Real Love EQ (Italy Version) (6:00)
12 Paul Ritch - Evil Laff (Konrad Black Remix) (4:58)
13 Mathew Jonson - Walking On The Hands That Follow Me (3:03)

Links:
www.myspace.com/konradblackprodukt
www.myspace.com/wagonrepair
www.water-gate.de
www.myspace.com/watergateclub