THOMAS KLEIN, otherwise drummer for the fine post- and krautrock rhythmic venturers Kriedler, also has a natty occasional sideline as Sølyst, wearing which hat he strides out with an album every year or three; August’s Spring will be his fourth album in eleven years, and collates together recordings he’s made over the past three.
Not that it’s a simple ragtag pulling together, nope; Thomas has spent time with and inside these pieces, tweaking here, shaving bits off there; revisiting, rearranging, asking new questions.
“Hold” is the first musical foaming to spill out of Thomas’s lab and leach into our world, as comes as a skeletal, fractured groove, the deep buzz of synth bass, twang and echo and an almost dub aesthetic, all stitched with flanging and phasing and a host of analogue effects-weird. Melodies are revealed deep in the broth, only to vanish once more. Angular, complex, still with some pop in its DNA, its quite the thing. As curators of Tangerine Dream founder Conrad Schnitzler’s archive, you can see why Bureau B are such fans.
Kreidler bandmate Andreas Reihse necessarily counts himself as a big fan of the new album. He says, lyrically and occasionally gnomically: “Spring! – a purple bud opens. The harbinger of a spring which teleports us back to a time before our own, or one which propels us forwards into the next year, the next decade, carries us home to our brightly lit nights, a club drenched in sweat. How we missed you.
“Photophobic dancers, tar on their shoes, flashes of light, monochrome is our only colour.
“Spring is the soundtrack to a night such as this, plotting its course through to the late morning: take “Sheroes” and play it between Martin Rev and Chris & Cosey; take “Atlas” and play it, if you will, after Tolouse Low Trax.
“The most seductive moments in all of these pieces are those in which Klein lets go of functionality, unleashes the groove and the space opens up, wider and wider, floating atmospherically into the late hours of the morning.
“Each track on Spring hints at a fresh start. This is where Sølyst truly begins. Dare yourself! Step onto the springboard! Spring!
Thomas himself comments: “‘Hold’ seems to be the most pop-like track from Spring, combining classical drumming, sequencing and an accidental kind of childish melody, which creates its off-key poppiness.
“The video reflects the mechanical machine-made rhythm basis, topped with a mixture of humoresque quotation of glamorous self-expression and Lynch-like evilness.”
“Hold” is out on digital streaming platforms right now.
Sølyst’s Spring will be released digitally, on CD and on vinyl by Bureau B on August 13th and can be pre-ordered from the Tapete Records shop, now.
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