Review
Genre and Mood
Moderat open their first album with A New Error, a track between techno, minimal and the wider electronic field that the trio’s music is filed under. The mood is melancholic and hypnotic, but not still: PopMatters heard its momentum as more of a march than a swagger.
Song Summary
A New Error is built from a few elements. The machine beat is, in PopMatters’ words, very simple and drum-machine-derived; the synths carry a slightly detuned wobble that the reviewer heard as the error of the title; and an anthemic buzz bass recalls the Human League’s The Dignity of Labour. Drowned in Sound called it the bubbling melodic analogue chug of the opener, the exception on an almost uniformly bleak record. AllMusic heard it range from stern EBM sounds to filter disco and schaffel, all within this one track.
Musical Breakdown
No source we found walks through A New Error section by section, so this breakdown stays with what the reviews describe and leaves out what they do not. Its parts are the three PopMatters named: the simple machine beat, the detuned synths and the buzzing bass. In that reviewer’s view the beat on this track draws attention away from the rhythm for the only time on the album, so the synths and the bass are where to listen. Nothing we found describes how the track opens, how it develops or how it ends, and no source places the EBM, filter disco and schaffel that AllMusic heard in it. Listen for those layers yourself, and for whether the march ever changes step.
Concepts in Focus
The album was made, PopMatters reported, with a bunch of 1970s analogue synthesizers, yet still sounds like a computer record from 2009. On A New Error the reviewer heard the slight detuning of the synths as the error of the title: the drift that analog circuits are known for, turned into the song’s character.
The drum machine is used with deliberate modesty. According to PopMatters, the beat on this track draws attention away from the rhythm for the only time on the album. With the drums kept simple, the ear goes to the bass and the synths.
A New Error later reached a new audience as soundtrack: Xavier Dolan used it in his 2012 film Laurence Anyways. Compare the patient, nocturnal layering of Lulu Rouge – Lulu’s Theme (feat. Trentemøller).
Artistic Context
Moderat joined the Berlin duo Modeselektor, Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, with Sascha Ring, who records as Apparat. Their first sessions produced the EP Auf Kosten der Gesundheit in 2003; years later they returned to a Berlin studio together and made this self-titled debut, released on BPitch Control on 11 May 2009. Albums II and III followed on Monkeytown.
Impact and Reception
Moderat was well received, with 7.6 out of 10 from Pitchfork and 7 from PopMatters, and in 2009 Resident Advisor’s readers voted Moderat the number one live act of the year. A New Error has stayed in their sets, with live recordings released since. Play it at night, and let the beat march you somewhere.
