Pop Ambient 2010

Facing no discernible competition when its first eight volumes were released, Kompakt's Pop Ambient series monopolized the ambient-techno compilation field throughout most of the 2000s' first decade. In the label's eyes, Innervisions' Muting the Noise (2008) and Mule Electronic's Kompakt-distributed Enjoy the Silence (2009), featuring Pop Ambient vets Thomas Fehlmann and DJ Koze, were likely seen as welcome, or even validating, releases -- extra assurance that their untiring support of ambient music has not been in isolation or vain. This particular volume of Pop Ambient keeps the ever-shifting array of contributors in (slow) motion, mixing in relative newcomers with the establishment. The most pleasant surprise is the re-emergence of Dettinger, who remixed Pet Shop Boys' "Gomorrah" in 2006 but hadn't released one of his own tracks since Pop Ambient 2002. His "Therefore" is typically soothing and unsettling, pitting a persistent jutting effect against cotton-soft drones. The lone true