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Extrawelt, "Schone Neue"
This German duo is a rave late and a Deutschmark short. However, those stuck on an interminable techno beat will rejoice; this music from electronica’s sordid past has been faithfully recreated for them yet again.
The electric textures opening the album are filled with a promise that as a whole it does not live up to. The panning swells, synth riffs, and cybernetic effects were the only elements that kept it listenable. Good music has the ability to get me caught up in its immediacy and emotion, but making it to the end of this one was quite a chore.
By the fourth song I’m convinced the sequencers have become stuck in the same patch. The knobs and buttons do not budge. A constant bass ridden throb provides enough rhythm to keep my feet moving on a dance room floor. Without variation, and concocted according to the precepts of a predictable formula, I might quickly choke if I had a pacifier clenched between my teeth. In the meantime I started to wave my glow stick, to watch the tracers for a bit of excitement; they faded, along with any hopes that the music would improve.
There were moments, starting early in the record, when the monotonous beats did relent for brief tone sustained seconds. My attention was caught, briefly. When repeated at what seemed like random intervals on almost every song, this tactic came across as a cheap gimmick. To what end I do not know.
There are only so many occasions when I can listen to a hi-hat tap out the same 4/4 pattern heard on countless other techno albums. Its use here makes this one indistinguishable from the rest. If that was the goal of Extrawelt, I can say with certainty that it has been achieved it. As for me, this is yet another piece of plastic destined for the musical scrap heap.
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