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Review by Bill Binkelman Provided you don't need more than lots (and lots and lots) of beats peppered with spacy synthesizers weird textural effects to amuse you or to be entertained, N-Tribe's (Harald Grosskopf and Steve Baltes) Tower of Power may strike you as a good album. Myself, I got plain worn out (and almost fell asleep) after just the fourteen-plus minute first track, "Space." That cut opens with two minutes of cosmic spacemusic washes, but when the rhythms do kick in (which, on this album, can mean anything from techno to semi-tribal to Berlin-esque to electronica to just about any other kind of rhythm you'd find in electronic music) they thoroughly dominate the music and they seem to go on and on and on. From an engineering standpoint, the instruments and rhythms sound good (a tad muddy at times, though), but so much of what I hear is non-involving and maybe even boring. "Speech" is pretty wacked for a Groove Unltd. track, although it's actually similar to some compositions from Ozone Player (although Otso Pakarinen keeps his songs a lot shorter than this twelve-plus minute tune). Weird sampled vocalized "da dums" loop for what seems to be an eternity, circling around abrasive electronic textures and pulsing techno beats. To say it gets annoying after awhile is an understatement. The later addition of some eerie high-pitched spacy effects only adds to the off-kilter disorienting electronics encased in the mind-numbing sameness of the beats. "Speed" sounds more like an Electroshock Records release, full of distorted spacy synths, electronic effects, looped textures, and somewhat chaotic rhythms. "Questions" the closest thing to a rave track I've ever heard on a Groove release, may actually be the best thing on the CD, although that's more by default since it's only seven and a half minutes long and, as a result, the repetition of beats and electronics doesn't wear so thin as it does on the other cuts (plus, it actually sounds interesting to me). I know I'm being hard on this CD, and I should applaud Groove for releasing something that bears almost no resemblance to Berlin school music, except on some wild tangent. However, I can't hide my dislike for this recording. I only hope some newbie to EM doesn't latch onto this and decide against exploring any more music from Groove as a result. I don't know who the audience for Tower of Power is, but it sure isn't yours truly. |
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