Ellen Allien - "Thrills"

I still can't get enough of Berlinette either. LOVE the Allien.

In that I've nearly started this thread myself before.

Ellen Allien: "An album is a work from a period in one's life. Constantly rushing around through clubs makes me feel distracted. I'm no longer grounded. Instead, I'm still floating somewhere inside this club action, fluttering through the night, standing between the bass drum and the emotions of the people. I'm totally absent. Often I'm no longer inside my own body. When I have more time, when I'm on holiday or just lying around in my bed, I can finally start to process things. I don't often have this peacefulness in my life, and it's the same with music. Learning to say no is a virtue, being able to concentrate on only one thing - my own thing. Making an album mainly means coming down, relaxing, finding myself again, making contact with myself again, finding out where I want to go, showing what I'm capable of. It's a nice process, returning to the things I like."

http://www.bpitchcontrol.de/

thrill. a feeling. feeling the body in the world.
goose bumps. it's the most sensible reaction to the world and the quietest and loudest at the same time.
noticing, perceiving the world - realizing your self only by taking in the world. liberty, feeling free. feeling your self while feeling free. to be in the music; beeing the music itself. feeling the sounds entering the body.
more goose bumps, the tickle at the surface.
the sounds are tickeling under the surface.
so, the body twitches, moves, until it finds a rhythm, which can only be an mage of the sound.
no marching, but a dance, synchronized by devotion.
the profession is creativity.
this is a task of realizing the conscientous self.
withdrawing control so that no pain is noticeable.
only this itch. crossing borders - and yet this passage constitutes the threshold between the body and the outer world. it makes the body part of the world.
twisting buttons until hands bleed.
draw the figure of intuition with a mouse.
only feel the stormy propensity from the inside.
it's the inside wich wants to be outside.
music from the inside which wants to be outside.
not controlled, only filtered by the structure of beats.
the code of the soul, a coding of the soul in zero and one. in the areas in between there is no emptiness. that is where the concrete part is developed.
the clarity. a clarity which only stops when thinking recedes. ecstasy.
the thrill of one'sown thrills.
(how beautiful.)

http://www.bpitchcontrol.de/

In the meantime, Ellen Allien no longer places the primary emphasis on testing her own abilities, perspectives (Stadtkind) and links to current movements in electronic music (Berlinette). Rather, her third album "Thrills" makes a clear statement: Her passions have become her profession. This also means that she has withdrawn from the daily grind of being a label manager to allow herself as much freedom as possible - namely to define herself as an artist, with all it entails. And that can only work based on the well-oiled team at BPitch Control giving her the necessary logistical support. Concentration is vital. Creative expression has always been her outlet in the search for the thrill of sensing and feeling. On "Thrills" this builds up to a great moment of clarity. Ellen Allien puts her two feet on the ground and lets her thoughts play in the clouds. Thrills may be her balance between concentration and relaxation. She perceives excitement as a single moment, in which the half-closed eyes show the surroundings in a blur, when one can feel a slight tingling beneath the scalp. This bodily sensation, of being "here and now", may be an intention of "Thrills", to hold on tight to this one moment of clarity. For Ellen Allien, music is expression and at the same time, a channel. "Thrills" is a result of excellent teamwork with Holger Zielske (Smash TV) with whom she also produced "Stadtkind" and "Berlinette". But the making of "Thrills" is not only defined by concentrated and experienced working methods. The ability to let go and to feel like oneself also requires a very free and relaxed approach to handling production technologies. With new-old units like the Roland 808 and an ARP 2600 a much warmer, non-digital sound emerged, which also altered the music in a new and at the same time an old way. On "Thrills" one can now interpret Ellen Allien's search for a way to merge man and technology as an intermediate result among many others. Nevertheless, despite these recurring sound frames, Ellen Allien remains a tinkerer who objects to staying in comfortable, wellknown surroundings. The ARP 2600 has become Ellen Allien's new favourite instrument, for which she searched for two months on Ebay. Her love of technology is also elementary to "Thrills", while always remaining a means to an end - not vice versa. Ellen Allien allows herself the freedom she needs to let out this inner thrill, this ecstasy, which can be experienced by producer and consumers alike. Her years of travel, the incredible flood of sensations, the filtering, capturing and framing, has, meanwhile, helped Ellen Allien to perceive herself more strongly. She no longer feels lost in this world - on the contrary. The relaxedness which emanates from "Thrills", without being slow or chilly, is a sign of maturity. Ellen Allien has found her musical path, her orientation. She has built her own system of coordinates. She seeks out traces, and finds them. Ellen Allien's musical future is a link between past and present even though she thinks that "future is dust".
The clarity of sound on "Thrills", the coherence, which finds its basis in Ellen Allien's personal history, refers to memories - ones that were really experienced and not just re-produced feelings - which are still so moving that they not only become the sound of a whole generation, but also the soundtrack to her own biography. Ellen Allien's technoid, electroid roots, the everlasting game of asking the question "What else can you do with it?" shows that techno has not come to an end by a long way - on the contrary. Because with every shout of "Techno Is Dead", it is newly born with a different face, which at least on "Thrills" is very coherent and self-contained and invites you to linger. And all this time, Ellen Allien's orientation toward what rocks the hardest, what makes the dance floor boil over, is emblematic of her life and experience as a DJ. The bass is always the common thread and all the vocals and melodies twirl around it.

http://www.soulseduction.com/common/item_detail.php?ItemCode=B182429

MAKE ME MAGMA
bpc105
magma remixes by the mfa & modeselektor
release: 18.04.2005

with "magma" ellen allien sets out to loosen us up fo her third album "thrills" (bpc106). everybody will sweat in this small workout because magma is like a little steam turbine with which ellen allien softly digs up the dance floor so that we can dance at the center of the earth, sweating prufusely in the heat. whoever doens't understand that ellen turns more than just a few knobs is, so to speak, not seeing the forest with all the trees in the way. almost fourteen years of techno certainly leave their trace and, one must say of course, they've brought about a bunch of fun and coincidences. ellen allien, our magical fairy, steers the techno of "magma" with a baddass rowdy voice, like swinging around a wild red flag in order to push the limits of the tube even further.

http://www.bpitchcontrol.de/artist/1

http://www.bpitchcontrol.de/imglib/digifly.jpg

And she has an ARP now. OMG!

I'd love to hear this when it comes out, I really liked "Berlinette" a lot.

CD TRACKLISTING:

1 COME 6:39
2 THE BRAIN IS LOST 5:20
3 YOUR BODY IS MY BODY 5:36
4 NAKED RAIN 4:56
5 WASHING MACHINE IS SPEAKING 5:27
6 DOWN 4:38
7 GHOST TRAIN 3:07
8 CLOUDY CITY 6:21
9 SHE IS WITH ME 5:05
10 MAGMA 5:56

VINYL TRACKLISTING:

A1 COME 6:39
A2 THE BRAIN IS LOST 5:20
B1 YOUR BODY IS MY BODY 5:36
B2 NAKED RAIN 4:56
C1 WASHING MACHINE IS SPEAKING 5:27
C2 DOWN 4:38
C3 GHOST TRAIN 3:07
D1 CLOUDY CITY 6:21
D2 SHE IS WITH ME 5:05
D3 MAGMA 5:56

Possibly interesting link, all I know about these things really is the Andrea Parker connection (her use of it on 'Kiss My Arp' and the somewhat devastating bass sound it seems to make).

http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arp260001.html

More (Translated) Blurbs

New inches Allien
Bpitch lady acknowledges
[07.03.05 14:19]
Their new album brings inches out Allien, citizen of Berlin miracle child of the electrical and Technoszene in May. The album with the name ' Thrills ' comes in the Gloeckchenmonat - punctual to the revival the open air culture. The Beats sounds rather warmly, deep and soft. Breakbeats mix under melodies and gentle Vocals lift the tendency easily in Melancholi. The basses roll only so there - never really aggressively, always seeming and floating.

Perhaps the gentleness of new productions owes Allien to their newest favourite instrument - the ARP2600. Altogether ten TRACKS were brought in for the electronic scene for the new album and point interesting connections from today to yesterday. It knarzt, bleept and wummert - Techno is not not dead, under any circumstances.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.intro.de/musik/news/1110201598&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEllen%2BAllien%2Bmagma%2Bbuy%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official

All that, and the lack of german song titles (and singing?). I'm going to have to adjust my expectations a little here!

Oh, and.... there's a short, intriguing, sample of 'Magma' on the bpitch website now. Still pretty damn excited.

I actually can't remember if there are any German vox I'm afraid: the vox don't play as central a role as they did on Berlinette, for the most part.

And to think I was in Miami only last week.

promising!

also: terrific article/interview in the forthcoming Plan B, out next week. Ellen on the new album: "Thrills feels like me from the inside. To turn myself inside out while I make music is one of my favourite hobbies."

False hope is a bitch.

(xpost)

(btw: no German vox)

!
it's like knowing that you too are mortal.

Overall, very pleased.

i agree. the sounds seem very full and layered. infact you kind of have to play it loud to get the right effect.

i do think ellen and bpitch have done a very good job of breaking into US indie-centric media, along with kompakt and, before them (and more indie), warp.

and i can't WAIT to hear ellen collaborate with apparat.

OTM. I thought it was too polished ... too much of the Kompakt-esque smoothness (which I like ordinarily) ... I strongly prefer the dirtier, sloppier "Thrills" (particularly stuff like "The Brain Is Lost").

It was always going to be a tricky one though, I mean "Berlinette" was just one of those huge, huge records for me personally. Also that has 'dirt' too (that wildy flanging, filthy bassline in Abstract Pictures - OMG) but yes, I can totally understand it coming over more considered, produced, premeditated overall. Thrills manages to do 'mimimal (in the most UN-minimal, fattened up & slamming way possible) and 'raw' at the same time.

That feels pretty much the opposite of the 'cold' sound of Thrills to me. Give it a go :)

rereading/remembering upthread about your warmth issue Ronan -the type of warmth Thrills provides feels better to me than Berlinette's. so maybe if you didn't enjoy B, maybe you'll like T eventually. i just know when people say this electronica is so "warm" i often don't agree - feels like there's emotive melody or vocals or organic or lush sounds laid over some totally opposing material and i feel annoyed to try to make it work. i had that problem with some Berlinette tracks, but with Thrills its much more integrated. Mabye b/c its less about warmth of emotions than it is about the well...the body, or atleast some other more simple but all consuming aspect of being alive. its all the sex/hunting/building/running/breathing we have to do so much that that might as well just not worry about anything else. atleast this is how i'm feeling it right now.

I love 'Naked Rain', those airy, soothing but forceful synths are as satisfying as any point in 'Mandarine Girl' for me. 'She Is With Me' seems underappreciated too... I flipped out completely the first time I heard (a sample of) it. I loved the off-hand description I read somewhere about "she even finds time to break a piano over Autechre's knee" zing!

Clearly I could still write a great deal of crap about this record and what it seems to describe so effortlessly with sound for me. But I'll spare y'all that.

altho prob not apparent, i'm restraining myself too!
and yeah i would say it moody and somewhat emtional too -i don't mean to describe it so ridiculously Ayn Rand? but I think she's celebrating some of those things outwardly.

I think that might be how I feel about "Thrills".

xpost - The whole field of genre labelling seems a tangled nightmare at the moment, which is also probably healthy, but still I find "Thrills" touching on House/ElectroHouse (and as you've pointed out before maybe descended from her "Fleig Mit" mix)... but no way would I sit it more than 25% in that category. It's quite a stretch for my understanding of what I take the term to represent (lighter, more playful & nimble dance music, less thumping & banging, more shuffling).

xxposts - I've actually heard quite a few mixes go south attempting to get her records in. Except for her own, unsurprisingly!

(check her website charts this month ^_^ )

i've heard 'magma' played out quite a lot (and have played it myself), and it always got a great reaction - it definitely felt like one of the anthems of the summer for me. i haven't heard 'come' but that would definitely get me going, and i think 'washing machine is speaking' and 'the brain is lost' would go down v well too.

o nate otm about the cold/warm duality of the album. i'd agree with susan too - there's something very physical, but also very internalised, about thrills, like maybe it's replacing the blood running through yr veins. susan, i'm curious as to what you don't like about 'washing machine is speaking'? that was my immediate favourite and still one of my highlights.

did anyone else read the great ellen interview in plan b back when this came out? she said lots of interesting things about how she made it.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/3838/picture2nb.jpg
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1223/picture0013jr.jpg
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/4605/picture0020xf.jpg

There's a list of all the gear she uses at the end of this piece though, which might be interesting (if you understand anything about that stuff, I don't) - http://www.shejay.net/articleDetail.php?articleID=185

Your Body is My Body -- even at 8am on the subway, I'm totally in the hands of that heavy chugging sound mixed with the metal swirlies

Come as some sort of opening, definitely.

Brain is Lost when you're assured that no one in the room is sober or can move quickly.

and I can't remember what the others sound like. Lex, I'll have to listen to Washing Machine again b/c I can't remember why I didn't like it.

i didn't mean how ellen made the album in a technical sense, more her motivation ("to turn myself inside out" etc) and what drives her to make sounds like that. i really love that piece.

I'm somehow more excited about the 'listening tracks' that the rest of it, perhaps because I'd rather this was a total detour than "Berlinette" revisited... but I'll surely be excited about it all the closer it gets to April. Maybe time for a new thread in 2006?

the square! i totally associate that color with Thrills now.

Felt compelled to listen to Thrills all morning. Despite its title Your Body Is My Body is probably my favourite track, for the hum that drifts in at 1:20 and for nailing the album's cold/warm vibe. Surprised at how little it's mentioned in this thread.

And whatever happened to Susan Douglas?

the kiki remix of "your body..." is superb as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UciALMrsE0k

this one was good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLfk74eHcxY