Ellen Allien & Apparat "Orchestra of Bubbles"

On an unrelated note..
If I said I liked Bjork, I doubt anyone would respond with "Yeah, well, you know a lot of the sound of that one album had to do with Matmos."

I've heard this exact argument, although a lot of quotes from Drew and others have shown it to be false. Bjork has taken on more styles and sounds than most artists while switching collaborators and producers so I could easily see where someone could imagine that each producer is doing most of the work.

On the Ellen front, I'd say that unless someone can cite a specific interview or inside knowledge that I'd assume she's doing a majority share of the work. Allmusic is telling me very little other than crediting one of the Smash TV guys as producer/co-producer on some of her stuff -- I'd speculate that's more for the mixing and mastering side of things.

Sacha Funke and Ellen have never worked on each others material except for remixes afaik.

And yeah, unfortunately the scenario Nabisco doubts is totally, totally common. There are examples on ILM for a start (in the "female electronic musicians?" thread). Some people even give her about the same (tiny) amount of credit Madonna gets... which probably explains why it infuriates me to see history repeating w/r/t Ellen.

The labels sound is hardly as totally homogenous as the acts on Areal ('cept Ada) for instance, nor is it as narrowly focused as some german micro-specialist labels, but still a Bpitch record often manages to have a 'common' sound. It's not unthinkable (or bad!) that there may be some talent pooling going on.

Yep. Nabisco OTM! Obvious point but worth repeating.

Some of us are capable of getting over that... I'd say it's particularly rife in techno circles though, this kind of dismissive attitude.

the most similar argument i can think of--in this type of music--was the one that accompanied the departure of darren emerson from underworld, where it was suggested that he was responsible for their sound and the success of the music, which i thought was bullshit since he hasn't done anything interesting since he left the group and underworld released yet another fantastic album without his help.

I didn't like his further attempts at songcraft on the e.p. that followed much. Whether the new album might produce some successful attempts at that kind of thing (and other kinds of things!) who knows?

I'd be very curious to hear her take on a fully lyrical song with that flat german singing accent of hers (there's a word for this but it's German - "sprech... something") I have SUCH a crush on german female vocals generally now (Ellen, AGF, etc) I should invest in some Ute Lemper records a.s.a.p. really!

apparat and ellen allien album almost finished
Current mood: exhausted

i basically spent the last 2 months fulltime in the studio to finish what ellen and i started during the year. our record "orchestra of bubbles" will be mastered in one week and it´ll be out in early may on bpitchcontrol. 11 tracks - supposed to be a techno album now sounding totally various.

Fandango my compatriot.

you don't see me making a huge deal out of the fact that booka shade produces almost all of the get physical tracks--who cares? the tracks are fucking great; that's what i care about. i think it's cool that they have such a definable 'house sound' (as does bpitch, in a different sort of way.)

I wasn't attributing an "anti-female conspiracy" (as it was hysterically labelled upthread) to you especially, or anyone on ILM.

1. Turbo Dreams 4:11
2. Way Out 3:43
3. Retina 4:47
4. Jet 6:34
5. Floating Points 5:14
6. Under 4:54
7. Edison 3:48
8. Leave Me Alone 3:17
9. Do Not Break 5:13
10.Metric 3:53
11.Bubbles 4:58

Oh man, yeah I did NOT expect to be able to hear this so soon (three tracks in, don't think it's a fake, but three is all I can get for now (slsk being a total arse)... but very little could make me happier really. Sounding good!

http://www.uploadyourfiles.de/maau0wf05ud5x3cv42h00xf36uep2rj7/gl53e/Download.html

I would like to start this trend by saying this is pretty damn cool and will be convincing friends to get it.

Well then, another massive, undeniable, surprising WINNER!.

So fresh. Will attempt to babble coherently... shit, when I'm good & ready this time eh?

xpost - thank you!!!!

I'm gonna save other thoughts for a more er... considered post this time. Obviously I'm loving it to pieces, and it's a stellar achievment on both of their parts really.

She has kept working as a dj and still releases albums every 4 years or so, but I agree, after Berlinette and this album it seemed like she was on a different, more interesting path than what we ended up with.

Berlinette and this album are total classics though.

Thrills is her magnum opus for me. Such a beast of a record

still listen to this plenty often, a classic

Ellen took a series of experimental left turns after Orchestra of Bubbles, which is great in theory, but she didn't really nail any of them. The austere SOOL took a lot of time to get into, but was quite engaging when you did, and then Dust, the album with the shoegaze-y guitars, was preceded one of her most annoying songs, 'Flashy Flashy'.

LISm, a single track with drones and industrial noises produced for a dance performance also wasn't designed to bring back the Berlinette punters to the fold. Don't think I ever heard the last three, Nost, Alientronic and AurAA, which emerged in relatively quick succession from 2017-2020, but she's still very active as a DJ.

I do not care for “metric” (dubsteppy thing ruins the vibe) or “leave me alone” (too much apparat, too syrupy) but the rest of the album is incredible

WAY OUT
ROTARY
DO NOT BREAK
EDISON

^the top jams imo

i still listen to 'way out' 20 times a day

this was such a big album and this minimal, glitchy sound was everywhere in the mid-00s and yet it feels like it's completely overlooked today.

Allien's pivot into big-room trance-influenced techno of late is fun in a mindless hedonistic way but I miss the sense of personality and singularity from this era.

WAY OUT
ROTARY
DO NOT BREAK
EDISON

^the top jams imo

― brimstead, Monday, 3 April 2023 02:10 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

come on, JET!

Weird how Ellen Allien kinda wasted away her career after that. I remember a indie rockish album a couple of years later and that was …it?

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, April 2, 2023 3:48 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

her account was recommended to me based on other follows on instagram and she appears to be doing dj gigs on multiple continents and seems to be doing well!

boxedjoy otm on the recent mixes. looks like she did a beats in space mix in january that looks a little more varied, though

been craving Berlinette lately, went to Bandcamp, the digital costs more than the CD!!! WTF who does this?

someone trying to clear out their storage space full of unsold product, probably

I would think that, but the CD is 17 euros and the digital is 17.69, so baffling

meanwhile they are like $10 shipped in the US on Discogs, guess I'll go that route

lmao did you see how much the shipping for the cd is from germany? the digital is a bargain!

I really enjoyed all her albums up until Lism. It’s frustrating that most of Nost and all of Alientronic are so full of cold/dreary/grayscale techno monoliths. Feels like she purposely excised all her personality out of those records. Auraa was way better and felt like a low key successor to Thrills, it had more light/ variation/life to it. I guess she has sort of given up on albums as of now.

Nothing brings out the uber-cringe more than reading some of my older enthusiastic(!!) dance music posts on here lol. I think it's being more self-aware and ok with the auty introvert outsider tendency in play, and how reliant I was on the internet for discovery in a way, I may be *slightly* less so now.

Can see how the whole club-but-not-quite, somewhat packaged, but also cheeky but not jokey (more fun than being amongst anoraks debating "proper techno" anyway) Bpitch vibe appealed to someone who hadn't really lost it hardcore (or fitted in) in a club for years on end like some, essentially, a dabbler. Who also totally missed the original "summer of love" ffs. But did make it to Berlin (cool) briefly I guess haha.

Weirdly I've totally gone clubbing mad again last couple years but more seeking out weird disco/house in tastes mostly.

None of which is relevant, I really liked SOOL/LISM and NOST (some) I liked the breadth of putting something different out every time. The indie one and the others though I just couldn't crack, didn't work for me. Did someone above already say painted into a corner? Kind agree.

I think Ellen DJ's maybe a bit outside my interests these days too, not followed in some time.

Boxedjoy upthread said "completely overlooked" I kind of think it's because it was completely overground by the time it came out, amongst the contemparies of this sub-scene... hidden in plain sight I guess as it's not something "diggers" are gonna pull out if those of a certain age are already over-familiar.

It's so weird/refreshing when you get a track from around this particular era in a mix now... lots of still great music but very out of fashion/time currently?

'scuse the paragraph, not posted in a million years.

I hear a lot of the Villalobos and Perlon sound in sets from the likes of Shanti Celeste, Ben UFO et al, and I think Modeselektor are secretly the most influential act of the Festival Bass sound of 2025, but the glitchy "IDM techno" sound of BPitch and similar feels ripe for revival still, at least in the orbit of dance music I'm listening to

I guess she has sort of given up on albums as of now.
Looks like it. I think her focus is on the UFO label and We Are Not Alone club nights and compilations - as well as the DJing obviously. That said, Ellen still drops a great tune every now and then. I'm really enjoying "How It Looks Like" from the ICARIUS Vol.2 comp (also now a stand alone digital single).