Fon - Fakt

All Music Guide

Released in 2000 on Fon's own label, Werkzeug, Fakt delivers a platter of minimal techno that sounds almost straightforward when compared to the project's subsequent releases. Each of these short tracks has an insistent pulse, interlocking motifs, and a "pure" digital sound that hints at the music of Thomas Brinkmann, Noto, and the like. Yet once you listen closer, it becomes obvious that under that superficial order lies chaos -- a well-controlled but still disrupting force that tugs at the tunes, giving them a strange life of their own. It is Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" robots revolting against their masters; it is HAL 9000, the onboard computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, going nuts after an overdose of Kraftwerk. Between the cold percussive "thumps" and the grainy, elongated tones, something desperately tries to make your feet move while ripping your eardrums open. Fon seems to be exploring how far one can get away from the dancefloor without actually leaving it behind -- although the group does leave in "End," the music becoming much more abstract. Interesting, but this album is nevertheless not as striking as Headnlokbuzter or Tding.

- François Couture, All Music Guide