The self-titled new album by Kilo might have been the most unspectacular and harmless release of last year. Released on the Onitor label which has always been sort of an unspectacular little harmless cousin to more prolific techno labels such as Kompakt, there is absolutely nothing regarding Kilo which could lead to anything even closely resembling excitement. All the while, this album is still decent enough to get through its 54 minutes without getting annoyed.

Kilo are two Austrians who had already released an album on Onitor Records two years ago, apparently belonging to the genre of ?folktronica?. Even though the new album also has some guitars in it, there?s not much in it qualifying it as ?folktronica?. If it had to be put in a genre it would probably be clicks?n?cuts. Kilo?s tunes are often slightly fractured. They usually start with a few loops, try and get a groove on and mess around a little towards the middle of the track. In a way, it often sounds similar to Jan Jelinek, but while Jelinek succeeds at finding this meditative interlocking of his loops that make his tracks so special, Kilo usually sound nice, but ultimately boring. There are pretty weird tracks sewn in here and there, for example ?Schlingel Paradiso? with its slowed down psychedelia. It?s hard to picture the album if these interludes would have filled a whole album. The way they?re used, they mostly sound out of place and random.

The album contains one tune which shows all of Kilo?s potential and proves that this album could have been good. On ?Pleasure I?ve Seen You at the Supermarket?, Kilo build up the necessary tension and vary enough during the track?s five plus minutes to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, it remains an exception on an otherwise eventless album. 3/10 -- Stephan Bauer (27 March, 2007)