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review by Mark Morton "Hey Edgar, wake up, man". "What is it Chris?" "Groove Unlimited has released a really cool set for all us Berlin school freaks. You know the kind of music that turns us on, right? Big , juicy sequential lines like they used to do in the '70s ? Using 3 or 4 of them at once, all different yet playing together? " "Well.. hey man there's a lot of that stuff out now. In fact, there's a lot more of it than there ever was in my day. What's so different or unusual about this release that I should pay attention?" "Gee you're grumpy when you wake up . Well, you know how when those Berlin bands used to go on stage they would bring those sequenced lines in slow. Like they'd start out with slow drony sounds or wispy mellotron flutes? And since we were all, eh, ALTERED back in the day that made sense, but now it seems a little draggy? " "And your point is? " "Ok, well do you remember Frank Zappa? How he used to put out a lot of eclectic records with such a lot of weird stuff on them? But there was a lot of kickin' rock on it as well? And people said 'Hey ya know, Zappa's a pretty good guitar player underneath it all' and then the record company people released a record called Shut Up and Play yer Guitar or something like that where it was all his guitar solos without the weird avant garde stiff or the semi burlesque stage show lyrics? " "I can't even remember my name at this point in the day. But, hey didn't Neil Young do something similar once?" "Yeah, man , he released a whole album of nothing but the live feedback endings that his band would do on tour." "Sounds like a contract dispute to me. But what has this got to do with Berlin school? " "Well , these 2 volumes are series of short little pieces that are pretty muxh nothing but one fine Berlin sequence after the other! I guess that's why they call it Building Sequential Stones. Most of the tracks are short. uptempo, and contain the driving sequences that we all have come to love. But the cds give good value for money, they are over an hour long each and contain14 or more tracks on each cd. The recording quality is very good, too". "Ah, I dunno. Wouldn't a whole record filled with nothing but these sequences get a little boring? " "Well, that was part of the point back in the day. Remember, Edgar, we thought that being bored was very interesting!" "Yeah but we are in a new era now. Does this music sound vital,and alive?" "Very much so. In fact, Lakveet is a good enough musician that the monotony problems you worry about are taken care of. He varies the timbre of the synth lines, the tempos, the keys, throws in the odd improvisation over the sequences and even has the occasional drum part. There are even a few slower tracks, with dreamy chords, where the sequence lines are not so obvious. And there are some pretty tracks were the sequences emerge gradually , just like the old days. Lakveet and Groove Unlimited have come up with a real winner here." "Oh, boy,now you sound like an infomercial. OK Chris you have convinced me. I will buy these 2 CDs if you do one more thing." "What's that, Edgar?" "Leave so I can go back to sleep!" |
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