Double LP version. Includes download code. Kompakt presents Total 24. Having admired Tee Mango from afar for many years, Michael Mayer took heart and invited him to this year’s Total. “So In Love” is in the best tradition of the Kompakt minimal funk of the early years. Reinhard Voigt has always placed great emphasis on loving animals. On the track with the unsurprising title “Der, der mit dem Gummiball sang (Orange),” he lets whole hordes of different four-legged friends and poultry on the microphone. Hopefully the stench will dissipate from the studio. When Rhenish cheerfulness meets holiday anticipation, the result is something like this Hawaiian shirt turned music called “Chee-Caruso” by Jürgen Paape. No animals were tortured for this piece either, even if it sounds like it. Next comes London’s award-winning pedigree dog Rex The Dog. “Laika” is a heart-warming ode to the mongrel dog of the same name, who was the first living creature to make it from the streets of Moscow into space. A little-known fact about Michael Mayer is that he is one of the fastest crossword puzzle foxes on the left bank of the Rhine, always in relentless rivalry with Wolfgang Voigt, who thinks he is even faster. The big battle is yet to come. As an integral part of the family, Jonathan Kaspar is of course not to be missed. “Are You” celebrates the kind of early morning rapture that is commonplace at his new DJ venue, the brand-new Cologne superclub FI. Everything is so colorful here. Sascha Funke takes a bow to one of the greats of German showbiz with the trippy electro smasher “The Heck.” More emotion, more love, more sing-along factor? Si, claro! Argia’s “Love Keeps You Running” masterfully combines groove and pop. She may be at home in Madrid, but there’s Cologne DNA in her somewhere. Jörg Burger is still in a psychedelic mood in 2024. That suits him, that’s where he needs to be. A parallel universe is conceivable in which such music is affectionately called Goa. Before going to bed, the Wassermann reads a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights.