Album Review: Power of Anonymity by Steffi

Anonymity can be a kind of calling card, and in electronic music, it often is. There's a subset of producers who made their names, in part, by hiding their identities, at least at first; just think of John Talabot, or Redshape, or Burial. The popularity of that strategy, in recent years, has dovetailed with a design philosophy that emphasizes mystery over clarity.

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Naming your album Power Of Anonymity is a double-edged sword: You'd better be sure the offering leans more towards the Power in the album title than the Anonymity. In the case of Dutch-born DJ and producer Steffi, she teeters on the edge of both on her second full-length release for OstGut Ton, the record label owned by Berlin's techno mecca Berghain. A longstanding resident at Berghain's upstairs annex Panorama, Steffi has carved a name for herself in the techno/house scene for her dynamic and eclectic sets, often infusing them with little-known underground material and disco.

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Steffie Doms was a DJ long before she was a producer. You can tell: her tracks are almost exclusively streamlined for club play. They also sound just like the kind of records she plays out—old, analogue and a bit dusty. As formulaic as it can be, her flair for hooks makes her best music great ("Yours" is essentially a modern house classic), even if the rest of the equation is left wanting.

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