Ellen Allien - "Thrills"

xpost - which German techno albums is Berlinette blander than? (or, request for suggestions plz) Genuinely curious. It hooked me from the word go for literally months and well, I like it and rate it more than I want to say (out of fear of ridicule mostly). I'll see how I feel about it in five years time :-)

xxpost - don't sleep on Stadtkind, all her mix cd's are pretty exceptional, weiss.mix maybe having a slight over the others for badass-ness.

second thoughts: "a million other German techno albums" maybe only like 10-20 suggestions! I seem to buy a few already and a million would surely bankrupt me for good ;-)

OK, I exaggerated a bit :) ... but I thought that "Berlinette" tried to cover "minimalism" + "playful melodies", much in the same vein as The Modernist (actually, like most of Jorg Burger's work), Jurgen Paape, and Salz. "Berlinette" is half of a good album but it just didn't hook me for 50 minutes.

*eyes cheapish Modernist album suspiciously* I do NOT need more German electronic music this month >_< This stuff is like crack.

Also a free CD ... but it's boring as hell, despite a trendy label selection [wave music, rz, get physical, kailash, traum, mood music, mental groove, 2020 vision, sexonwax, more music, superfred].

I think "Thrills" is a natural progression from "Berlinette" - it still combines that melodic electro-pop sensibility with the German house dance aesthetic.

I'm warming up to Thrills, but it doesn't have the vital element that Berlinette has. I am coming back to it quite often, so I'm hoping it's a slow grower.

Although, I don't feel the same way myself. It was worthwhile reading. But I'm hardly surprised they haven't found much to like in her latest direction *at all* (come on, it's Pitchfork! They love real songs & real music & 'meaning' and above all boring-as-fuck indie rockers 4eva

... It is something of a shame when the previous Allien reviews have been excellent. I'm wondering if Stylus is waiting till the US release (but they gave 'Berlinette' only faint praise if I recall).

I'll admit that this, and the Isolée review earlier this week were the motivation for my comments here - Pitchfork: Classic or Dud?

I'm almost tempted to start a MU v.s Ellen Allien thread sometimes, the comparison comes up so often I even ended up getting a copy of Afro Finger & Gel (and getting burned! sorry, they're entertaining at best, over-wacky & close to dull at the worst, but at no point 'riotous' as I had been sorely misled to believe).

Yes, he makes it pretty clear why he didn't like it as much as Berlinette, but his reasons seem pretty wrong-headed: like not liking a chocolate cake because it's not cherry pie. I hate to bring up the dreaded "r" word (hint: it ends in -ism) but that comes through pretty loud & clear in that review.

Anyway the guy sounds like an idiot writing stuff like this:

"..the fabulously titled 'Ghost Train', which I would respect on name alone..."

This rubs me the wrong way, although there's some truth to it:
..surely to land itself on Fabriclive 30 between some Melchior throwback and a Senor Coconut track, remixed by Crazy Remixer Dude Nobody Actually Cares About. I guess there's merit there, but I'm not smiling; not dancing either.
Look, a vague generalization that is careful to snipe at past mixes with pointed accusations that create a landscape of eye rolling! Yes, Akufen included a Senor Coconut song. Yes, the throwback critique is used in reference to a lot of token inclusions.

This entire "dude nobody actually cares about" crap is awful in that it directly links the idea of cred into this whole ordeal. I swear that there's the implication that either: a.) stupid techno fans think you aren't cool if you don't know who crazyremixer is, how lame, b.) I am too busy to care about some song when I have no idea who mixed it.
Fuck that noise, really. You're a grown man reviewing music that's "faceless," just critique whether the song is good and whether it fits in. And do it on a review of an actual mix, not as a vague allusion on some hackjob against someone with a recognizable name.

The space-and-size issues still seem to me like the main thing the album has to offer. I suppose I'm with people like Nick in thinking that more sculpted movement would make it a better record, and I suppose I'm with people like Nick in thinking that the way Berlinette took on the "roles" of different genres at once was a more interesting or useful or exciting thing to do than this. But I'm down with Thrills, mostly.

unless he has inside info ("Ellen was busy listening to the latest Kompakt comp, stealing ideas! Apparat wrote the whole thing!"), that leap of logic seems baseless.

She's also set to appear on two tracks on fellow Berliner T. Raumschmiere's new album, Blitzkrieg Pop, due August 23 on Mute and is working on a 12" for Ghostly International, which should be out by the end of the year. Guess I'll be buying the T. Raumschmiere album after all then.

Also, wanted to add... with a bit of poking around, you can get a better quality (better than a realplayer stream) version of the Sónar set (also mentioned on Pfork) from her website btw. I didn't realise that's what it was until now actually! Sort of makes more sense now, how long did she play for after this? Was anyone at this? And what the hell is that track 45 mins in which is like deadly, precisely controlled acid-303 stabs + vicious military drumming?? *swoon*. I really should just make a fan page instead of bumping this thread again shouldn't I? Sorry :-( (although if anyone has answers to those questions, do say!).

I've heard her play things in a similar vein before, layering really active/pure acid lines over different, busy, breakbeat tracks... It's perhaps not anything super-original(?), but it stood out enough when I heard it before that it seemed like it.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Ellen+Allien