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review by Bill Binkelman Recording under the pseudonym Current, Robert Solheim's album Musik is a veritable glossary/textbook of any number of current-day executions of electronica/EM. Spread out over fourteen tracks, Solheim traverses a wide variety of musical terrains, each one navigated with an abundance of style and clear-cut expertise. This is a startling display of one artist's truly multi-facteted talents. While I have personal favorites on the album, such as the bouncy semi-drum and bass number "Do You Understand?" (featuring a way cool dialogue sample), every track is worthwhile and despite the CD's varied and sundry moods, tempos, and subgenres, Solheim infuses a distinctly cohesive "sound" throughout the maze of songs. Other cuts I took a particular shine to include the slow-tempo spacy dub of "Unknown Destination" (superb use of echoed bell tones set against digital piano and swirling synths), "Brightness" which begins as moody midtempo trip-hop before erupting in a flurry of rapid fire d 'n' b beats, the haunting sexiness of "Carpet Magic" (featuring an almost luxuriously languid tempo and warm glowing analog-sounding spacemusic synths), the too-short (just under three minutes) foreboding glitch/scratch "Beginning to End," and "Addiction," a spot-on nod to modern day electronica and chill-out with its slow tempo quasi-drum and bass beats set against beautifully somber lush keyboards. Solheim brilliantly juxtaposes all manner of synths, sometimes in the same track, swinging from classic analog floating chords to neo-Berlin pulses to minor key washes of digital spaciness to glitch beats and dubby rhythms. As I wrote above, you could almost consider Musik a "musical" glossary of electronic music technology. That he accomplished this multiple virtuosity while maintaining the high level of compositional quality (i.e. these songs all kick ass) is a testament to his prodigious talent. I highly recommend this CD to fans of Alpha Wave Movement's more rhythmic recordings (or that artist's other recent collaborative effort as Thought Guild) as well as those who have enjoyed the Waveform "A.D." compilations and lovers of the albums released by Todd Fletcher (or his alter ego psychetropic). Musik is a delightful assortment of trippy foot-tapping electronic music done by someone with an astounding command of his keyboards! |
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