Think of Modeselektor as an electronic dance music primer: once you've boogied with Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, you've boogied to acid house, IDM, electro, Eurodisco, hip-hop, ambient techno, and just about any other beat-based strain you might care to mention. Modeselektor have recorded since 2000 with Ellen Allien's generally IDM-oriented BPitch Control record label, but Modeselektor stands out from labelmates like Apparat and Sascha Funke like a sore thumb. The genius in Hello Mom! isn't in its diversity, although there's plenty of that. Rather, Bronsert and Szary manage to twist and mold every style they can get their grubby mitts on into a friendly, unpretentious collection of pop tunes with little regard for guidelines or precedents. The glitchy, dancehall reggae-flavored "Dancingbox", which features a guest spot from Parisian b-boy crew TTC, sounds like the consummate European dance track: a cathartic party-starter that has floor-filling potential in both techno and hip-hop clubs. "The Rapanthem", as its name suggests, also draws on hip-hop, but it's equally informed by the ambient sounds of Aphex Twin and even the eerie progressive rock of Goblin. "Kill Bill Vol. 4" is pure acid, sounding like a 90's raver reengineered for the ADD 2000's. On the other hand, "Hasir", with its Asiatic strings and netherwordly synths, is nearly trip-hop in tone. It's a brief, pleasant departure from the relentlessly party-oriented tracks that fill most of the album. Hello Mom! doesn't exactly sound like the work of bona fide musical mavericks, but that's no dig. Modeselektor are established pros at manipulating styles and trends, and Hello Mom! is the marvelously danceable realization of an ethos that's rather unique in electronic music.
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