Like their minimalist Teutonic predecessors, Couch keep it simple. The instrumentation is piano, bass, guitar, drums, with occasional subtle strings or horns. Piano parts often serve as second bass lines, guitars pluck high harmonic, and drums are generally satisfyingly Zeppelin-like. The real beauty of the album, though, comes from the strong melodies—every track is pretty, and “Everything on Traces” (“Alle auf Pause”) and the opening “Plan” are gorgeous. Song structures may be straightforward, but never boring. As great minimalists from Steve Reich to Chuck Berry have always known, the beauty of repetition comes from slight variations and shifts that sometimes don’t even register on the conscious mind. This Couch do to perfection—there are combinatorial variations of arrangements and melodies and just enough crafty developments to keep songs captivating. Brilliant stuff.
—Josiah J. Madigan