Customer Reviews

Sool

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Sool" is a surprising departure for techno queen Ellen Allien. Rather than give us another album of awesome, tuneful techno, she gives us a CD made more for listening than dancing. The music is at once unexpected and a logical progression from her earlier work. Where her previous albums were made of individual songs, "Sool" is more like one continuous work. It's not exactly a concept album, per se, but the flow and overall form points to something larger than a track-by-track format.

Since I have no doubt that Allien will continue to pump out the minimal techno tracks, I'm happy that she's also exploring this new direction. I've always thought techno could be more than music for dancing, but the "listening" type records always seem to fall under different labels such as downtempo, trip hop, or the unfortunately named IDM. Well, here it is - a techno album you can listen to all the way through while maintaining musical interest.

I'm not giving it five stars because it's not quite a masterpiece. Some of the tracks are a bit weak and periodically lapse into a momentary autopilot phase. Essentially, it's a great album, but not a masterpiece. She's got something even better coming in the future and when it arrives, I'm sure it will warrant a five-star review.

Ellen Allien fans need to get this - techno fans need to get this - electronic music fans need to get this. It demonstrates all the potential of techno beyond its dance function and it demonstrates it well. Check it out.

Ellen Allien seems to have learned a few tricks from her collaboration with Apparat; on her new album _Sool_, she eschews the club-oriented in favor of a lighter, more IDM-focused sound. That's not to say that the beats aren't there, but on "Caress," they're certainly more subdued beneath the quasi-industrial surface. "Sprung" is similarly quiet, though it has more propulsion; the laser beam robot wars of "Its," even moreso. She also embrace a less-is-more philosophy: "Bim" wears its sparseness on its sleeve, while "Zauber" has an almost classical feel with its lone clarinet. _Sool_ also sees Allien branching out: "Elphine" engages in some spaced-out funk, while "Frieda" could almost be a pop song. Some interesting new directions for Ellen Allien.

The High Priestess of Techno returns with an album of introspection. Born after a "hot and crazy summer and autumn", Ellen Allien retreated to her studio where "I push buttons and sing" went on all winter. The result is a deconstruction from the last decade of Allien works: "beats" are formed from anything but drum sounds; so-corny-they're-cool synthetic swirls flesh out melodies ("Sprung"); jumbo jet cabin ambience couples with restaurant conversations and chiming drones ("Einsteigen"); bursts of air occupy the bass frequencies while digitized flutes float overhead ("Ondu"). The few danceable tracks, "Its" and "MM", would have a hard time garnering more than a few head nods, as Allien prefers to work your senses, choosing subdued electronics and field recordings (I think hear the sound of water pipes as heard from another flat on this one) instead of driving 808 thumps and screaming acid. Screw the club: Sool is a headphone delight!