Tag: Kraftwerk Trans Europe Express

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known for a stint in synth punk act POW!, Aaron Diko is an Indianapolis, IN-born, Bay Area-based electronic musician, who recently returned to his hometown to record a series of solo material and collaborations with longtime friends’ Creeping Pink‘s Landon Caldwell, Mitch Duncan and Burnt Ones’ Mark Tester in a recording project that Diko has dubbed DDCT.

DDCT’s self-titled full-length debut is slated for release Friday through Empty Cellar Records and Medium Sound, and the album’s first single “Tracks” features undulating and cascading layers of vintage synths paired with buzzing power chords and a motorik groove bolstered by four-on-the-floor drum programming, and while clearly drawing from Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, the composition and its resulting recording manages to nod at space rock but with free-flowing improvised feel, capturing a group of musicians playing and grabbing onto a groove with a “you-are-there” immediacy.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pattern Language Returns with Retro-futuristic Visuals for Kraftwerk and John Carpenter-Inspired New Single “Le Choc des Etoiles”

Last month, I wrote about the Boulder, CO-based multi-instrumenalist Chris Frain. And although he’s arguably best known as a keyboardist in indie pop act The Giranimals and the bassist in power prog rcock trio Tanuki, Frain can […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic Visuals for DBFC’s “Jenks”

Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-15 months or so, you’ve likely come across several posts featuring one of this site’s most recent mainstay acts, the Paris-based electronic music and production duo DBFC. Comprised of Manchester, UK-born, Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and-based Dombrance, the duo emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of a handful of singles during 2015-2017 through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records — including “Autonomic,” a track that manages to nod at Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and “The Man Machine,” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

Building upon a growing national and international profile, the Parisian electronic duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Jenks is slated for a June 2, 2017 release through Different Recordings/[PIAS] Records. Earlier this year I wrote about “Sinner,” the first official single from the album, and it was a track that furthered cemented the English/French duo’s reputation for pairing slick, dance-floor leaning electronic production with organic instrumentation — and while the aforementioned “Autonomic” took it’s cues from Kraftwerk, “Sinner” struck me as nodding a bit more at Come With Us-era The Chemical Brothers, complete with a similar anthemic yet trippy vibe. Album title track and latest single “Jenks” however, manages to nod at Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, EMF‘s “Unbelievable,” Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop-era U2 and the Manchester sound but with a motorik groove consisting of a sinuous bass line, shimmering arpeggio synths, warm blasts of electric guitar, four on the floor-drumming. swirling electronics and an arena rock hook paired with dreamy vocals singing lyrics about breaking free from conformity and being whatever you want to be/whatever you need to be — and at all costs.

The recently released music video is shot in a gentle, old-fashioned and trippy haze and follows an attractive woman as she walks a late night street to a club/performance space where she encounters DBFC — including their live, touring members — performing “Jenks,” and as the video progresses, the video’s protagonist gets entranced and then freaks the fuck out. And while nodding at commercials and old music videos, it’s arguably one of the weirdest videos I’ve seen in some time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Retro-Futuristic Sounds and Visuals of Pattern Language’s “By The Time We Get There”

Perhaps best known as a keyboardist in indie pop act The Giranimals and the bassist in power prog rcock trio Tanuki, the Boulder, CO-based multi-instrumenalisdt Chris Frain can trace the origins of his latest, solo recording project Pattern Language from both his experience as a member of The Giranimals, where he developed a love of the sound of the Minimoog and Mellotron synthesizer — and from a chance viewing of the BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia. And unsurprisingly, as you’ll hear on “By The Time We Get There,” the first single off Frain’s Total Squaresville mini-album, Frain’s sound is largely inspired by Kraftwerk, Thomas Dolby and others; in fact, the song reminds me quite a bit of Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk as Frain develops a deceptively simple melody and pairs it with a motorik groove — but on repeated listens, the track reveals subtle twists and turns that hints that the material was much more improvised than anyone would initially think.

As Chris Frain explains in press notes, “Each one of the pieces on this album were started from some very basic idea about sound or structure or primary influence and yet I was surprised by all the twists and turns they took through the stages of composition, recording and mixing. It’s still fun to listen to each piece and how they took on a life of its own to become something new and unexpected — even to me.”

Created by 75 Ohms’ Cheyenne Grow, the recently released music video uses obsolete, 20th century, corporate video equipment and from generating real-time video landscapes and infinite textures, and as a result it has an appropriately retro-futuristic vibe.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year, you may recall coming across posts featuring one of this site’s newest mainstay acts, the Paris-based electronic music and production duo DBFC. Comprised of Manchester, UK-born, Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and-based Dombrance, the duo emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of a handful of singles during 2015-2017 through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records — including “Autonomic,” a track that manages to nod at Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

Building upon a growing national and international profile, the Parisian electronic duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Jenks is slated for a June 2, 2017 release through Different Recordings/[PIAS] Records. And you may recall that I wrote about Jenks‘ first official single “Sinner,” a track that further cements the French duo’s reputation for pairing slick, dance floor-friendly production with organic instrumentation — but while “Autonomic” took its cues from Kraftwerk, “Sinner” nodded at Come With Us-era The Chemical Brothers, as it possessed a similar cosmic haze. Album title track “Jenks” however, reminds me even more of Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, EMF‘s “Unbelievable” and the Manchester sound as dreamy vocals are paired with an infectious, motorik groove featuring a sinuous bass line, shimmering arpeggio synths and a rousingly anthemic yet dance floor friendly hook.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Kraftwerk Inspired Sounds and Trippy Visuals of Heart Years’ “The Field Trip”

Heart Years is a London, UK-based producer and electronic music artist, who has begun to receive attention for a sound that based around his love of vintage synths, tape machines and 70s electronica, and his latest single “The Field Trip” off “The Great Fades” single sounds to my ear as though it draws from Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine-era Kraftwerk as layers of shimmering and undulating arpeggio synths are paired with a motorik groove. And in similar fashion to “Trans Europe Express” “Metal on Metal” and “Abzug,” the track manages to evoke the sensation of forward movement.

The recently released video for “The Field Trip” is a fitting audio-visual collaboration between the British electronic artists and indie filmmaker Bailey. And as Bailey explains of the idea shot using Lomography’s lo-fi analog, hand cranked, LomoKino movie camera, which only produces 15 seconds of footage per 35mm roll, “The film is an abstract sci-fi where extra-terrestrial life forms represented by 3 primary colour shapes take a field trip to planet earth and observe nature, human infrastructure, behaviour and sound … before leaving unnoticed by the planet’s inhabitants.” Of course, what makes the video so fitting is that it captures the trippy nature of the song while equally evoking the sensation of movement towards something.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of her Johannes Berglund-prodcued, 2011 full-length debut and 2015’s Perfect Storm, the Stockholm, Sweden-based singer/songwriter and electronic pop artist Ester Ideskog, best known as Vanbot quickly established a reputation for crafting ethereal, hook-driven and deeply thoughtful synth-based pop. Ideskog’s soon-to-be released third, full-length effort Siberia will continue her ongoing collaboration with Berglund, who’s best known for his work with The Knife and I Break Horses while being a subtle change in sonic and thematic direction, influenced by a train trip through the Siberian tundra, a trip that was meant to free her and Berglund from the endless choices that the modern recording studio frequently provides, the curiosity of seeing what happens with your songwriting process when you change the patterns you’ve developed. But it may have also been fueled by a desire to escape the mundane, to be in motion and to upset the status quo — even if in a subtle fashion.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you may recall that I wrote about Siberia‘s first single “Collide (Krasnoyarsk),” a brooding, Kate Bush-like atmospheric pop track featuring thumping beats, shimmering arpeggio synths and industrial clang and clatter within an infectious, hook-driven song that reminded me of Niki and the Dove and Moonbabies. The album’s third single “Close Enough (Ulan Bator)” pairs Ideskog’s ethereal and plaintive vocals with a slick, dance floor-friendly production featuring twinkling synths, electronic bleeps and bloops, stuttering drum programming and a soaring hook to create a sound that manages to nod a bit at Kraftwerk‘s Trans Europe Express with the beats mimicking both the sound of metal on metal and the propulsive motion of the train; but paired with intimate and confessional lyrics focusing on an almost insatiable desire to love and to be loved in return.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of its Manchester, UK-born and Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and based Dombrance, the Paris-based electronic music and production duo DBFC emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of several singles throughout 2015 and 2016 through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records — including “Automatic,” a track which remained me of Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

The duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Jenks is slated for a June 2, 2017 release through Different Recordings/[PIAS] Records and the album’s first single “Sinner” will partially further their reputation for pairing slick electronic production with organic instrumentation but while a single like  the aforementioned “Automatic” struck me as owing a debut to Kraftwerk and Primal Scream, the new single still nods at those influences while subtly nodding at The Chemical Brothers‘ Come With Us as the song possesses a free-flowing improvisation paired with a similarly trippy and cosmic glow.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Speakman Sound is a somewhat mysterious Glastonbury, UK-based sibling production and electronic music artist duo, Todd and Guy. As the story goes, the Glastonbury-based sibling production and artist duo spent their childhood in the Glastonbury area immersed in music through their father, a well-known and highly-regarded guitarist, who was heavily involved in the psychedelic music scene. When the duo were teens, they immersed themselves in Somerset‘s rave and drum ‘n’ bass culture, which has influenced their sound quite a bit — although their latest single “Pangea” finds the duo pairing shimmering and ambient synths with thudding, tweeter and woofer rocking low-end and explosively funky drumming possess a cosmic glow, all while nodding at Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk and The Chemical Brothers‘ “Star Guitar.”

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal 70s and 80s Found Footage-based Visuals for DBFC’s “Automatic”

Comprised of its frontmen Manchester, UK-born and Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and based Dombrance, along with Guilluame Rosel (percussion) and Victor Paillet (bass), the Paris-based electronic music collective DBFC emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release […]