Much has been made of the fact that Modeselektor and Thom Yorke are firm friends, but there really is a lot more to the Berliners’ third album than the two tracks on which the Radiohead vocalist can be found. If anything they are two of the more withdrawn moments on an album that bursts out of the blocks spitting fury, with striking tracks like ‘Evil Twin’ and the rolling beats of ‘Blue Clouds’. A lot of styles get a reference in the course of the album, and ‘Berlin’ itself is a more than effective R&B diversion that suggests its makers might have been listening to Urban Species. Meanwhile PVT make engaging guests on the offbeat ‘Green Light Go’, and the Yorke tracks, ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘This’, float his vocals above left of centre techno productions. A mixture of the big room and the dark lounge bar, ‘Monkeytown’ is an album that gets better with every listen, complementing its bruising, up tempo tracks with surprisingly tender moments of introspection. Powerful stuff.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
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