“The Wave is a roof that it's more than possible to blend the many styles of Electronica with the essences of its Mother Earth, the Berlin School”
1 Beyond the Rules 8:47 2 The Wave 5:05 3 Welcome to the Past 6:48 4 Meeting Mr B 6:52 5 Lifetime 5:09 6 Tanzkaffee 5:11 7 Interludium 3:21 8 Conductor 5:31 9 Flashback 6:42 10 Sonic in Space 5:47 11 Time 9:16 12 Modern Tales fron Ancient Circuits 6:01 13 Final Essence 3:34
(CD-r/DDL 78:03) (V.F.)
(Electronica, Berlin School)
A robot kind of DJ voice! Frenzied pulsations and lively sequences which try to follow the beat while bringing nuances over it, Beyond the Rules sets the tone in an album which will make no compromise regarding its very dance orientation. Riffs of keyboard come to nibble this intense model of sequenced pulsations with evasive embraces, while electronic percussions make flout shouts of sirens in order to strike and weigh down this technoïd trance. Heavy, powerful and vibrating, Beyond the Rules undoes its dislocated spasms on an impressive meshing of resonant percussions, bass pulsations and jerky sequences where are entangled some layers of synth to the dissonant harmonies. It's lively and it's loaded of tones and effects which make even more attractive this model of vertical trance where heaviness and swiftness go hand in hand. Contrary to Jean Michel Jarre, Moonbooter is the objective evidence that it is possible to merge the styles of Électronica in a universe which respects the roots of its growth; Berlin School EM style. From album in album, the musician-synthesist-producer-DJ succeeds very well to mix his pallet of styles in a sound aestheticism which reminds me a contemporary Robert Schroeder. THE WAVE is a 18th album which this time is more centered on a model of dance and trance, without neglecting at all these subtleties so dear to the Teutonic model.
The title-track offers a leaping structure with beautiful vocalizes and harmonies of synths as much ghostly as very allegorical. The rhythmic skeletons are boning the sequences which sparkle and dance in on a heavy and tenacious rhythm. Heavy Chill vibes, like in Conductor! Welcome to the Past is, and by far, the most beautiful track in this album. The rhythm, although very pulsatory, makes beat the sequences with the insistence of a furious stubborn while the synth frees beautiful harmonious offerings which moan in effects of spirals and of psychedelic sonic graffiti. Between a down-tempo and a very poetic ballad, Welcome to the Past is going to infiltrate your ears and will take a lot of time before leaving them. Flashback is another track which is inspired by the Berlin School atmospheres but with a more swirling structure of rhythm which surrounds the subtle singings of spectres. Meeting Mr B is in the most tradition of the dance hymns of the 90's. I have the impression to relive the Franky Goes to Hollywood era. And it's even more true with Tanzkaffee where Bernd Scholl extirpates from its hardware synths some effects of real female voices that he creates that he built from analog patch. One would swear to hear a true singer. Here as in Conductor which reminds me enormously a forgotten band of the Synth-Pop years, Altered Images. Lifetime is a good down-tempo sculptured in very complex atmospheres borrowed from the catalog of the French sonic poetry, all the opposite of Time which oscillates between structures of Dubstep and of down-tempo. The intro is superb with this sort of old machine which sounded like accordions in the years where Paris got used to the lights and where a macaque amused the crowds. The rhythm embraces a kind of funeral march before spreading the beatings of a good down-tempo where are always slamming these metallic percussions.
Sonic in Space is a fiery track. A kind of Acid House with a wild tempo unbridled by hyperactive percussions and flickered sequences which loosen some stroboscopic strands in beautiful synth pads, as harmonious as lively. The effects of the Vocoder add a very DJ touch to a track which competes with Modern Tales from ancient Circuits to get the palm of the most lively, the most ardent track of THE WAVE which ends with Final Essence and of its surprising electronic structure which pounds under the numerous palpitations of a centipede with sequences instead of feet. The synths remain very Berliner, one of the big strengths of this album with a good mixture of solos and harmonies which exchange the leading roles in an atmosphere very spiced by a beautiful pallet of emblematic tones coming out of the numerous possibilities of hardware synths. And after all; why be tied to the strings of a piano when the world of electronics is full of noises of its own? This quotation which is told at the very end of Final Essence explains alone the depths of THE WAVE.
Sylvain Lupari (November 1st, 2015) ***½**
Available at MellowJet Records
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