Once in a while, for no particular reason, the stars in your world align and an outstanding bit of good fortune befalls you. I was the recipient of just such a fortune this afternoon.
Every day I try to take a few minutes to explore potentially rewarding sounds that had somehow previously avoided my radar. Often I’ll review the universally-acclaimed album charts for a given genre as an interest-of-the-week on rateyourmusic.com. Sunday morning’s theme was the peak of the downtempo scene – late 1990s utlra-chilled choons filled with trip-hop rhythms, mellow minimal melodies, jazz-infused horn riffs and the sparse and fragmented fills from a Fender Rhodes.
This was music generally associated with hip, urban cafes in the 90s and found widespread mainstream popularity through Ministry of Sound’s chillout compilations of the cool sounds of Ibiza.
These compilations are fine if you just want an atmospheric bed of sound for your late night laptop adventures or for small gatherings, but none of these are particularly memorable. I was on the hunt for an ultra-chilled tour de force – an anthemic masterpiece of critical acclaim. That album, as I quickly learned, is Kruder & Dorfmeister’s K&D Sessions.
Originally released in 1998, both the 4LP set and the double-CD versions of the album were issued exclusively in Germany. The album has since become a holy grail for lovers of dub and downtempo classics. I was disappointed to find that, bootlegs aside, the album only had one proper release 17 years ago.
But that’s when I stumbled upon wonderful news – it just so happened that the album was newly-remastered by Bernie Grundman for a special 5LP audiophile edition released in March of this year!
Most of the major distribution channels were sold out, with sellers in the USA asking $110-$169 for copies of the album. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a copy locally this afternoon for $15 and I couldn’t be happier.
The audiophile edition also comes with a download code for a 24-bit digital archive of the remastered set. What an incredible addition to my electronic music library!