Ellen Allien - "Thrills"

'Down' remixes by dinky, fuckaloop & drama society out sometime. Looking forward to the Dinky particularly.

Nice write up here for this mix - A set that Ellen Allien recorded as a Sónar promo, originally hosted by Samurai FM, is now streaming from the "Online Radio" section of Allien's own website. Like everything Allien does, it's wet and dry, brainy and ravey, shocking and blasé all at once. I didn't know half the tracks-- like the crickets-in-rocking-chairs opener, or the plaintive yet blissed out Basic Channelly number that follows it-- but a helpful ILMer posted the tracklist here, so we can all trainspot together as Allien veers from planar click tracks into ridiculous kazoo fantasias, and from massive overdriven hangar bangers into the epic, John-Williams-goes-raving conclusion of Paul Kalkbrenner's newest "Ta-tü-tata", a record which-- like Sascha Funke's "Boy", also a recent Bpitch release-- everyone should own.

Funny how it never really clicked with me completely before now (found that whilst already listening and googling, like most pieces of "news" on Pitchfork I completely miss them at the time 'cos the layout is so crapshite) I love how it's so airy yet claustrophobic. I just wish I could squeeze it all down into 45 mins, it's a bit slow to unfold (and the mixing on the last three tracks is erm.. not the best, esp. for her).

!!

=)

I'm still excited about the interview where she mentioned ideas for her Fourth album! (i.e. not this one).

Either way a semi-quiet stopgap 2006 could be good... I feel like I might burn out on Bpitch before I burn out on Ms. Allien though (and perhaps current dance stuff generally, maybe it's winter blues or I've just been following stuff, in my way, to the exclusion of too much other music... either way I've been a little less enthused of late).

She calls it their "first proper collaboration" anyhow, can't see any reason why she'd be obtuse about it. Holger Zilske has been credited with co-production on all three albums so far, I think he deserves more of the credit myself, for the sake of accuracy.

(omg bootleg with kate bush's 'mrs bartolozzi' is dying to be made)

Just like Berlinette* wasn't boring & straight enough for the techno purists, but way too danceable for the IDM geeks. I think she's better than many artists in both areas at the moment.

It's all near-perfect for me though =)

I just find this rather slow, steady uptake in general (and Bpitch too, if the boat hasn't been missed completely now) frustrating. But then I'm a total fanboy and probably have all this totally out of perspective.

Susan, I'm not even sure if 'electronica/dance/techno' is 'huge' in Europe by the standards of previous years. It's also hard to gauge living in England (not London for me), it feels like a really backwards country a lot of the time now since the Britpop years. Not that d/t/e automatically automatically = forwards thinking, but dance music doesn't seem to be viewed as a creative sector here unlike er... The Libertines?? Oh, and Grime.

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".