“Strange and dazzling, delicious and scheming but especially sublime! Such is the concise analysis that one can make of this last Ron Boots' Signs in the Sand”
1 Klaustrofobie 26:53 2 Dream but not of Today 23:02 3 Signs in the Sand 7:05 Groove | GR-196 (CD 57:08) (V.F.) (Minimalist sequenced baseBerlin School)
Don't surprised if you have the strange impression of hearing Klaus Schulze and his Inter Face to En=Trance era when your ears will cross Ron Boots' last marvel. Concocted in the shade of the music played during his concert given on May 19th, 2012 at the Saint Bavo Church in Haarlem, Netherlands, SIGNS IN THE SAND is inspired by an artist who has influenced Ron Boots and hundreds of EM musicians; Klaus Schulze. On 2 wonderful long music pieces with oblong minimalist movements, Ron Boots draws the sketches of a mesmerizing universe of surrealism where black choirs hum absent airs on experimental rhythms in continual movement.
A concerto for voices of schizophrenia roaming in corridors of a psychiatric wing opens the gaps of the somber Klaustrofobie. This colorful intro of absent voices begins the 27 minutes of an epic title which allies psychedelism and eclecticism on a long gyrating minimalist rhythmic structure where is dragging a plethora of crazy tones (telephones ringtones, vibrating serpentines, absent, rustles hollow winds, paranormal gongs, etc.). Keys of a puny sequencer extricate from this foggy canvas of alienating madness to dance in a waltz made of delicate spasmodic hiccups which lose their illusions into the withdrawing lines of a synth and of its solos filled by strange claustrophobic aromas. Quietly the rhythm of Klaustrofobie brings together pulsations and mislaid chords to amplify a pace which wins in imposing presence. The synth solos are vicious! Swirling like spectres of madness or lassoes without strength, they encircle a rhythm became heavier and stronger. This rhythm, which is difficulty identifiable, reached its maturity with an alloy of glaucous pulsations, muffled percussions and curt incisions of synth pads with tones of glass. But especially of sequences with two-colored tones where the sounds of contrasting anvil and of erratic xylophones keys are bursting out in a delicious harmonious aura for a track that imprisons its passion into the corridors of insanity. Comparisons with Schulze? There are a lot. First of all, this minimalist rhythm which fattens its greediness by the addition of lost sequences and also by these superb solos with elusive dimensions which skim over this indescribable rhythm like blue clouds of ether trying a cerebral asphyxia on a dying refusing its fate. Are they dreamlike breaths or breezes of insanities? No matter because the illusion of a madness announced in the first second of Klaustrofobie persists all the way down this surprising track which by moments borrows the long corridors of the internal madness of Remy (The Great Church Trilogy and Exhibition of Dreams).
The intro of Dream but not of Today continues the exploration of black and paranormal ambiences with absent choirs humming a distress which gets lost in oblong musical hoops of which every outline awakens an unreal aquatic fauna. Tears of cello caress the despair of rebellious souls of which the faded voices shape the humming of penitent bees while the waves of synth are rolling on the sea tranquillity, reflecting on its waves the twinkling desire of silent stars. A fine line of sequence makes waddle its keys a little after the 6th minute, drawing a hopping rhythm which catches a strong line of a resonant bass and percussions which knock out the rhythm with some discordant strikes. And docilely the rhythm repeals the incoherence to embrace a good harmonious cohesion around fluty breaths and these fine sequences which sparkle like lights of prism. The absent choruses and their destroyed voices bring a nightmarish dimension to this long minimalist movement which embellishes its structure became oneiric with twisted solos that Erik van der Heijden draws such as in la belle époque Klaus Schulze's analog delights. Superb! The title-track changes the face of this album by a much less experimental approach. Keyboard chords are dragging at the tip of a rhythm which sounds just groovy, before modulating its approach with a sequenced undulatory movement which continues to rock these weakened chords always dancing in the breezes of an aphrodisiac synth.
Strange and dazzling, delicious and scheming but especially sublime! Such is the concise analysis that one can make of this last Ron Boots' opus. SIGNS IN THE SAND is at the height of the Dutch synthesist great talent. It's an album rich in ambiences and in crawling harmonies which burgeon on hypnotic rhythms which hook to the hearing with these fine and subtle permutations. It's a titanic work which is more than respectful of the object of its worship; Klaus Schulze. Wonderful! Sylvain Lupari (January 15th, 2013) *****
Available at Groove nl.
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