Michael Mayer

Cologne, Germany's Kompakt imprint has set the gold standard for cutting edge techno for nearly a decade. So, hopes were high for the release of label cofounder Michael Mayer's first long-player, Touch. Unfortunately, the album comes off as a routine exercise. The title track, while beginning with a huge flourish, is faceless dance music, and doesn't sound much different from a television ad for a new car. "Funky Handicap" starts out promisingly with a pulsing Teutonic bass, but devolves into an aimless sonic miasma by its end. Straying from the sleek sound Kompakt is known for, Mayer seems indecisive.