Untitled II

Untitled II

On its first album for the Berlin nightclub Berghain’s A-TON label, the anonymous project named Pom Pom expands upon the sound it's been developing since the early 2000s. Drawing from dark ambient, minimal techno, and charcoal-hued industrial, Untitled II dwells in the shadowy corners of the dance floor, favoring sluggish tempos and sepulchral atmospheres. Post-punk gloom and horror-movie synths infuse “Untitled 9,” while “Untitled 10,” an uncharacteristically fast-moving highlight, throbs to the pulse of classic EBM. It’s not all so glum: The clouds part for “Untitled 11,” in which a chilly bleep-techno refrain thaws amid a pool of sun-warmed synths. Greyscale techno is nothing new, but rarely does it shimmer quite as vividly as this.