National Album Day 2018: In praise of Bodenständig 2000 - Maxi German Rave Blast Hits 3 (Rephlex Records, 1999)

For all of the speculation back in the '90s about Aphex Twin purchasing submarines or roundabouts, you'd have to imagine that at least some of those braindance millions went towards propping up Rephlex Records, the label he and Grant Wilson-Claridge ran, given the heroic amount and sheer eclectic breadth of records the label released during its lifespan. Invariably, many of these were works of incontestable (if damaged) genius that would nonetheless be just slightly too weird to meet immediate acclaim, and were often to be found heavily discounted in HMV warehouse-clearance campaigns a year or two later (five Rephlex CDs for a tenner?), but have inevitably become collector's items in the years since.



One such serendipitous bargain purchase for me was Bodenständig 2000's Maxi German Rave Blast Hits 3. As well as the ridiculous title, it had an incredible beyond-good-or-bad cover, even by Rephlex's standards (they always did a good line in reductionist Atari-generation graphic design), which was somehow only improved by the presence of the £1.99 sale sticker. But it was the music contained within that really blew me away, back at the turn of the millennium. A compilation of work by the titular Germans, it plays like the greatest (admittedly slightly odd) party album ever, moving from epic 8-bit chiptune anthems to euro-party-rap, to random-sounding audio collages (the one with the pig samples may give you nightmares. The eerie electroprog tune about the small boy disappearing inside his computer definitely will).



It's almost all incredibly melodic, danceable and fun. In short, like so many of the fabulous oddities released by Rephlex, it's that record digger's dream, that lucky-find holy grail that's weird and obscure and sounds a million miles away from anything in the mainstream, but is, crucially, also incredibly good (if you had a copy of it on a tape, you'd probably quite fairly assume you'd never in a million years find another copy and just rip that to the internet instead). In fact, one track did reach a much wider audience, with In Rock 16 Bit being used for a TV commercial, and the acapella track Saureschnauze became more widely known when Bjork cited it as a major influence on her Medúlla album. If you want an album to remind you of how imaginative, fun and without boundaries (there is a Christmas song) electronic dance music can be, then try to give this one a listen. The band would later move away from music somewhat, focusing for a while on a new type of motorised skateboard instead, but this collection captured a snapshot of unique musical minds at their most unfettered.