A little less than two and a half years after its conception—and close to 30 singles, one compilation, one mix CD and one sublabel later—Berlin’s mobilee releases its first artist album. Naturally, who better to represent the milestone than Pan-Pot, who so far have delivered five essential singles to mobilee, helping to anchor the ever-shifting sound of one of Europe’s most exciting labels. Pan-Pot is the duo of Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix; in just two short years, with 10 singles (for mobilee and Einmaleins Musik) and remixes for the likes of Misc., Tim Xavier, Dapayk Solo, Sweet ‘n Candy, Damián Schwartz, and Anja Schneider and Sebo K, they’ve become known far and wide for their distinctive, groovy, and above all ominous sound. Pan-O-Rama finds the boys stretching that sound in every possible direction: twisting, tearing, and using the shreds to drag a wide swath of techno history into the future (and, just maybe, to drag a few pieces of techno future back into the past). Call it minimal if you must, but this ain’t no clickity-clack shit. You can hear the agonized gurgle of isolationist acid, reminiscent of Plastikman’s darkest nights. You can hear the percolating urgency of classic bleep techno. Tried and true hardware collides with restless digital experimentation as dance music’s DNA worms its way into twisted new shapes. Pan-O-Rama is dark, that’s for damned sure. Eerie vocals that seem to come from within the listener’s own head creep across the stereo field. (Don’t let mystery collaborator Hugh Betcha’s name fool you—judging from his paranoid muttering on “Charly,” he won’t be appearing in any romantic comedies any time soon.) Throughout, restrained minor-key melodies conjure 21st century noir, and a relentless low-end rumble seems to suck up all the light around it.