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Bochum Welt:
Feelings On A Screen
Rephlex CAT046 EP/CD
122 3:54 greenwich
120 3:20 fortune green
153 2:53 feelings on a screen
105 3:06 la nuit (slumber mix)
Bochum Welt continues his tapas dinner Rephlex release schedule with a
crisp little quad squad on gimicky green Rephlex logo shaped CD. Four
little di-Costanzo electronic appetizers arrive, delight, and are digested
before youve fully had a chance to enjoy them.
Greenwich opens with echoing percussion and a fat thick korg-y bassline.
The refrain is decidedly upbeat, with a very 80s nu-wave feel driven by
the atmospheric synths layered over the ever bumping 4 bar bass frame.
Simple, sleek and retro -- yet sassy and punchy throughout, a good opener.
The mood becomes more noodly and pensive with Fortune Green, a quieter
track with a concerned and deliberate organ line foundation, which sounds
gated as if it were almost played in reverse. As expected, nice Bochum
Welt contrast, with a smiling melody line over the top which reminds that
all will be allright and hope is not worth losing. Dead stop breaks are
used in several places to delineate the otherwise contemplative synth
scapes.
The title track is the one true BW gem here, in the same league as Le
Silence du Temps, Asteroids Over Berlin, or the 2 untitled Cozzi D-side
tracks from Desktop Robotics.. Classic, atomic pop diamond-cutting,
complete with Man-Machine-era synthetic vocals courtesy of Gians
Powerbook. This is how we live: "Data - Disk - Modem", indeed. The
chugging tuba style bassline is infectious, and with the addition of le
petit tip-Q accents and ambient atmospherics , a beautiful future pop
expanse has been painted. Sub-bass syn-voice stabs and looped "data"
samples punctuate a nice climax to the high point of this 4 tracker.
The slumber mix recast of the "le Nuit" from Kromode03 seems more like an
"insomnia mix": the track has been speeded up about 50% and he tinkling
windchime background has been brought way up front in the mix and tweaked
up for much more ominous spin. A sleepy dreamy number from a couple of
years back has been re-laid as nocturnal ambiance with a vengeance.
No real new ground is broken with this release, but Gianluigi manages to
progress and definitively refine his signature sound, without succumbing to
the "just add breakbeats and cheese" faux innovation strategy that many of
his peers have fallen to as of late. Four solid tracks, including one
genuine spine tingler, plus a novelty trainspotter collectable CD /
coaster. Worth the price of admission, and then some.
peeeeeeeeeece,
Jeff Davis <pHlow> ____--~~~~~~vvvv~~~~ oooo812.831.7846
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