Released on: Sten — The Essence

Peter M. Kersten’s pro­duc­tions as Lawrence are the arche­typal dar­lings of Dial, the label he founded with Carsten Jost and Turner’s Paul Kominek. Mix­ing solid house rhythms with exposed weepy melodies, Lawrence tracks read­ily con­form to album-length “home-listening” require­ments, qual­i­ties that reput­edly have con­vinced many a rock jock of the joys of dance music. His work under the name Sten is both more func­tional and less well-known, but the stripped-down explo­rations of Detroit and Chicago retain Kersten’s unmis­tak­able hand—a sense of warmth and play are inher­ent in these oth­er­wise cold, revi­sion­ist exercises.