The historical archive-inspired band’s fourth LP is entirely centred around the city of Berlin, and is a far more impressionist and instrumental than previous, with German language vocals and a nod to Weimar era and David Bowie’s Low album. Aside from the Kraftwerk influenced catchy electro-pop number – People, Let’s Dance – much of the album has a slower, flatter style, building slowly. Most of the sparse vocals are in German, and standout Der Rhythmus Der Maschinen includes Blixa Bargeld, veteran of The Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubauten. In a rather different style, Andreya Casablanca of Berlin garage band Gurr plays the part of Marlene Dietrich in My Blue Heaven. Lichtspiel III: Symphonie Diagonale is part of an instrumental trilogy that typifies the overall feel. of the album that itself is made of three parts – Building A City , Building A Myth, and Bright Magic. The album concept itself came to core band member J Willgoose who spent six months in the city and heard Walter Ruttman’s radical Berlin tape-artwork Wochenende, which is sampled on three tracks, originally from 1928, the piece collaged speech, field recordings and music into a sonic evocation of the city, and by walking the Leipzigerstrasse, site of the city’s first electric streetlight, using a wide-band electromagnetic receiver from Moscow’s Soma Laboratories. Out on PIAS (Play It Again Sam).
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