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Anja Schneider – Beyond the Valley Album Review

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 | Album Review | No Comments

The queens of Berlin go head to head this month. Mobilee’s head honcho vs BPitch Control’s head honcho in a bloody album release to the death… Chances are Anja Schneider and Ellen Allien are friends in the current European party capital that is Berlin and such brutal ideas probably never cross their mind. In fact we should be thankful that both are releasing albums. For Anja Schneider this is her debut album that she has co produced with Paul Brtschitsch on her own label Mobilee. Her album delivers the supple house sounds that Mobilee is currently pushing through acts like Sebo K and Pan Pot as well as the wider community from Rekleiner through to Dixon and Guido Schneider.

The album begins with Safari, a track which blends a cyclic melody of chimes and warm synths. It chime and synth melodies swirls and exchange positions as subtle percussion flutters in and out of the foreground to create a warm and welcoming opening track. From the light opening Anja dives straight into the heavy tribal rhythms of Mole. Released back in April it has been on heavy rotation for a lot of DJs out there. And rightly so as this is one of the stand out tracks of the album and of the year so far. Its highly percussive tribal rhythm and warm sub bass give Mole a dark and primeval foundation where stabs of sliding synths, plucked strings and wild sounds create an eerie and enchanted scene. Imagine Native Americans, the desert and some potent hallucinogenics as you quest to find yourself spiritually.

Maki and Beyond the Valley keep the restrained deep sound set by Mole. Maki utilises a Spanish guitar for an uplifting hook over a deep and percussive backing whilst Beyond the Valley uses a trickling guitar synth and echoed vocal stabs to create the atmosphere on the track. Both are similar in style but have their own nuances to distinguish them apart.

Cascabel uses intertwined melodies from various chime or glockenspiel sounding instruments which wriggle over a steady kick drum. It’s restrained like many of the other tracks in its delivery and the melodies hypnotise and mesmerise, making Cascabel a great warm up track for leading in to the next track Belize.

Another one of the singles already released, Belize is the other stand out track. Its stripped down nature and slow moving phases create a spacey round sound which has been destroying dancefloors for the last year or so. This track epitomises the deep hypnotic stripped back sounds which is rife across Europe at the moment.

Its hard to rate an album like this. On one hand each track is an excellent example of the new deep sound, yet as an album it can get tedious as one dark rhythm melds into the other. It’s not really an album to be listened to end to end but more so a collection of good dark house singles. Making it worth a purchase if you’re a DJ into this sound, but as an artist album it lacks variety and journey. 7/10

Anja Schneider – Beyond the Valley is out now.

Download from Beatport here.

Buy the CD from Amazon here.

Tracklisting:

1. Safari
2. Mole
3. Maki
4. Beyond The Valley
5. Gimlet
6. Cascabel
7. Belize
8. Get Away
9. Little Red Riding Hood
10. Fish At Night

Tags: Album Review, anja schneider, belize, beyond the valley, mole

Mental Overdrive – You Are Being Manipulated earPIPE Review

Monday, June 2nd, 2008 | Album Review, Other | No Comments

For those that don’t know, Mental Overdrive is Per Martinsen a Norwegian producer / DJ and live performer. From his biog it sounds like he’s done everything from releases on R&S ranging from nosebleed techno to electro ballads. Coming from Norway he does have that distinct Scandinavian sound of disco and funk combined house that we hear the likes of Prins Thomas and Lindstrom play and produce. 

This album combines the influences of disco, funk, house and electro with various results. Elephantastic kicks the album off with a quirky electronic number where a squelching riff runs over disco beats as big horns attenuate the end of each bar. The result can only be described as a spacey cartoon with charm. Run to the Hills is an interesting take on Iron Maiden’s original, using an synth for the guitar screeching riff and heavily vocodered vocals in place of Bruce Dickinson’s 80s power vocals. Unfortunately the different take does the track justice and sounds a little tacky. Spooks seems the most dancefloor friendly as it fires disco beats through a trickle of electro synths to get the sluggish of people pogoing.

There are two stand out tracks on this album, the first has to be Original Material. It goes straight for the jugular with its simple disco funk loop, distorted synths and some old skool filter action, creating a peak time frenzy set which could fit in amongst the darkest of techno or the lightest of house. The other stand out track is Mysterio. It’s dark and slow electronic melodies with stripped back percussion sets it out from the other tracks instantly.

Unfortunately this album is a mixed bag. Whilst some tracks are good, there are others which takes the disco influence a bit too far, causing tracks to sound tackier than a stick of blackpool rock. 5/10

You Are Being Manipulated is out now. Buy it from Amazon.

1. Intro
2. Elephantastic
3. Europa
4. R.I.P.R.A.W.
5. Run to the hills
6. Spooks
7. Original Material
8. Molina’s Theme
9. Mysterio
10. The Rage
11. End

Tags: Album Review, Mental Overdrive, You Are Being Manipulated