For the last ten years, Station 17 has been a musical therapy projectbased in Germany for a small group of financially-challenged mentallyhandicapped folks. The original concept was to pair up six members witha few professional musicians and see what happens. Since its inception,the group has released four albums and have played numerous shows,incorporating a variety of theatrics alongside the musicalperformances. According to the website, the group has progressed fromimprovisationally-based music and performances to a more constructed,loop-based sound. This year saw the first worldwide distributed releaseby Mute, a 17-track collection featuring some of Station 17'spreviously released songs with treatments by Kreidler, To Rococo Rot,FM Einheit, Pole and The Modernist. In all honesty, the concept is muchmore interesting than the output, which I find carries too manycharacteristics of the groups involved with the creation. Perhaps it'sthe necessary key to gain them more attention, but I think I've heardenough To Rococo Rot albums this year. Adding chopped up vocal samplesto clicky post-disco beats isn't a very progressive concept. If theoriginal albums are ever exported, I'll be enthusiastic to listen, butthis release honestly isn't doing a lot for me.
samples:
- Ich Und Ich (with Denyo 77)
- Bei Manni und Bine (with Andrewas Doreau & Justus Kohnke
- Losjez (with Thomas Fehlmann)
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