After listening to ‘Watergate 05’ a sufficiently number of times for me to give a careful opinion, I came to realise that assigning a numerical valuation on a one-to-ten scale to this record was somewhat unfair. There are many qualities that make it worth listening to. To begin with, Allien compiled these track from contrasting sources - from small labels whose trajectory doesn’t go beyond five releases, to renowned electronic dance music imprints such as Palette, Allien’s own BPitch Control or the hype king Ed Banger.
The outcome is very interesting. In some tracks, the abilities and experience of the German DJ/entrepreneur come as no surprise. Her good taste and keen eye for selecting the appropriate pieces is once more visible; but at other points, for instance the moment Röyksopp’s ‘This must be it’ appears after the hypnotic transition of ‘Molar One’, seems too rushed, making the microhouse and minimal essence she had built in the previous 40 minutes of the mix appear incongruous.
But then again, it is the mix of Watergate. One should bear in mind it ought to resemble whatever happens behind the walls of this Berlin institution when Ellen Allien is in charge. So, it is difficult to say whether the change in the transitions of the mix at this particular point, followed by ‘Pop the Clock’, belongs more to the euphoria of a crowded night in Watergate than to an in-studio oeuvre where kilometric mixing and state-of-the-art software and hardware are the quintessence of mixing. Hence, saying it is good or bad, an 8 or 10, is not enough. Ultimately, what is most appreciable is the riskiness and quality of the selection.
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