February 28, 2008 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Reviews
Justus Köhncke’s two previous full-lengths on Kompakt, Was Ist Musik (2002) and Doppelleben (2005), were slightly frustrating affairs. Both albums were filled with clever pop structures, quality sound design and subtle shifts in mood, but somehow they tended to fall short of pure emotional captivation. Partly of course this was due to Köhncke’s notorious vocals, which are at times just too deadpan and at times just too camp (check his destruction of Jürgen Paape’s seminal ‘So Weit Wie Noch Nie’ for the evidence, but the albums were also occasionally marred by Köhncke’s weakness for soft-focus disco, with kitsch rather than glamorous and decadent results. Safe and Sound combines many of these tendencies, but happily, it’s a much more satisfying listen. So much so you’ve got to wonder what inspired the difference. Perhaps this more muscular sound is down to Köhncke spending a lot of time in the clubs, or perhaps it’s a product of his new studio (located in an old butcher shop). The newfound help of the album’s co-writer/producer Fred Heimermann (certainly on ‘Tilda’, but likely more) might also be a contributing factor. But perhaps there was just something in the air? Those leaves on the Pop Ambient-esque cover, after all, do look suspiciously like marijuana.Köhncke’s disco tendency come to the fore on several tracks, but more confidently than on the previous two albums. With its ‘70s strings, ‘Parage’ is downright funky and would, in an ideal world, play on radios in Cadillac cars with whitewall tyres. ‘Molybdän’ lives up to its elemental name (attn non-scientists: ‘molybdenum’ is a heavy metal) and mimics more disco ball glitter than disco sound itself with sparkling stabs of sound and winding analogue washes. More overtly disco is the brilliant opener ‘Yacht’ which pays strong homage to ‘Slave to the Rhythm’, but then develops its own melodic narrative.Grace Jones isn’t the artist from the past to get name-checked. The first single from the album, ‘Feuerland’, is a cover of Krautrocker Michael Rother’s track from his 1977 LP ‘Flammende Herzen.
February 20, 2008 at 8:50 pm · Filed under Articles, Media
How many times his gig to istanbul canceled? Good question.These days minimal star Luciano is living the quiet life in rural Switzerland.His lifestyle change happened approximately a year ago, when Luciano moved from Berlin to Bossey, a small Swiss village near the French border.Luciano: “My philosophy is that a DJ should always try to transport emotions onto the dancefloor. To dig deep and bring everything up that mattered emotionally in their life, that made them laugh, everything that caused sensations. To try to transport that from their childhood to the now. You know, I’m very influenced by melodies I heard in my childhood. I never studied music. All my skills came from my own ear.” An Introduction Minimal just got messier.Minimal techno has always been about stripping things down to their essence.The series is a riff on the old idea of “DJ tools” offering stripped-down tracks meant to be mixed in performance.Now, with Cadenza’s Split Composition series, the opposite approach comes into play: building a new sound, and a new tradition, from the beats up.Each edition will consist of four sides of vinyl broken out into several skeletal rhythm tracks and a handful of supplementary parts: ambient fantasias, shimmering drones, treated vocals, electro-acoustic collages. The series is a riff on the old idea of “DJ tools” offering stripped-down tracks meant to be mixed in performance. So thats the idea, but is it worth spending over a tenner on as Luciano shares some original tools crafted only for those who dare to dive into creative waters ie these are tools and not tracks. Saying that, lead track “Keridos” is a shimmering techno surface that evolves over 10 minutes. “Saulitude” has an amazing bassline that is perfect for afterhours but its the ambient tools that, whilst not gonna encourage a DJ to buy it, could be both.
February 5, 2008 at 8:32 pm · Filed under Media, Reviews
Artist: Ulrich Schnauss
Album: Goodbye
Label: Domino
Style:Downtempo / Instrumental / Electronic / Rock
Time: 56 min.
Year: 2007
Goodbye may, at times, put you in mind of sirens drawing sailors to their downfall, but that’s not to say that this isn’t an uplifting album. The dissociated vocals are seamlessly combined with fragile chord progressions, tribal rhythms and textured electronic noise to create an album filled with optimism. The two tracks which make up the finale, ‘‘Goodbye’’ and ‘‘For Good’’, emphasise the message of the album; a valediction at the end of the journey. Hopefully there will be a reprise sometime soon and this is not goodbye, for good.
Artist: Yagya (Real Name: Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson)
Album: Rhythm Of Snow Label: Force Inc. Style: Minimal/Experimental Ambient Year: 2002
Rating:10
Icelandic producer Yagya (Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson) has been creating atmospheres through melody and sounds for more then a decade. A definitive member of the Thule Musik collective, Yagya also is known for his work as half of Sanasol and also the famed Plastic.
If winter is possible to play - it is played here.
If sound can draw all the charm of it - it is done here.
I’ve been listening to this album all the way to insanity, I know all the atoms of sound by heart. Do you love winter? I already do…
