Apparat ‎– Walls

Back in 2004 I was hearing the name Apparat for the first time so I picked up a record at a store, bought it and took it home. Wasn't very impressed although it wasn't bad, I just couldnt feel it much. So I stayed away from buying any other stuff till yesterday when I saw Walls at a second hand shop, read some decent reviews and decided to give it a go. Took it home and ut it on while I laid in bed reading a book. The violins were nice and the songs as they went by were catchy but not until track 8 'birds' did my ears really pick up. And picked up they did. Immediately becoming one of the best vocal tracks I had heard in awhile. I listened to it about an hour in a row. Woke up and for another hour. On my drive to work for an hour. Terrific.

As far as the rest of the cd it is very well produced and everything is well balanced and one of the best digital but proper warmth in the right places cd's I have heard in a few years easily. I then started to give more songs second and third listens. 'fractales t 1 ' was nice sounding like a more glitch Kettel. Vocals on a few sound like A-ha. Seriously. Lots of memorable songs and melodies on here. A lifetime worth of good melodies. This cd eally grows on you fast.

Lots of times I pigeonhole artists so I can pin them down into sub genres and things for recommendations or for styles but you cannot class this cd in any style really. Its just a good album. Very impressed

Are those violins I hear at the start of Apparat's _Walls_? Indeed, the album as a whole is a step forward from _Duplex_, more complex and more emotionally charged. The violins that introduced "Not a Number" recur on "Useless Information," accompanied with some new friends. The dark and funky "Hailin from the Edge" and the icy grooves of "Holdon" both benefit from Raz Ohara's terse vocals. But the beautifully glittering "Fractales, Pt. I" and the haunting "Arcadia" stand out the most, particularly with Ohara's dreamy vocals in service of the moody melodies. An excellent release.

Apparat is a German electronic music producer that i first noticed about 3 years ago following a recommendation by a friend that knows her shit.
It was Apparat's Duplex album that hit me hard with it's hectic yet organised soundscapes that amazed me with the attention to small sounds that Sasha is so well known for. Since that Duplex album Sasha released a collaboration album with Ellen Alien which didn't really catch my ears because it was too much dancefloor oriented in my eyes than his previous more experimental material. So although i approached this release with a grain of skepticism as soon as i found about this album i quickly purchased this album on Beatport.
So what do we have here? Pretty surprising outcome by all means. This album is much more stripped down version of the Apparat that i fell in love with but i guess that the insane sound editing and small glitches were replaced by lots of melodies and walls of strings which gives this album a very cinematic feeling at parts. The album features many vocal tunes that actually fit very well (after the initial shock that is). Raz Ohara contributes with his very unique and warm voice that hints remotely Thom Yorke's melancholy. Those tunes have a Hip Hop rhythm but don't let this shock you cause it really sounds cool, as hard to believe as it is.
Personally it took me almost one month to grasp this one, overcoming the undeniable Soul and Hip Hop influences that some tracks here display. I mean, IDM with Hip Hop, wasn't it the worse idea ever? Not here it isn't.

Bottom line:
Weird album, masterful production with really touching melodies in a few tunes and some really cool songs that you'd prefer on Radio over the shit they feed you.

After hearing Apparat's "Arcadia" on the recent Fabric 34 by his friend and collaborator Ellen Allien, I had been sweating on a new full release from him, and it has finally arrived in the shape of this full-length CD titled "Walls".

I cannot believe how good this album is. "Arcadia" is one of my fave tracks of the last 5 years, and there are so many other things to recommend from this album.

* A nice mix of instrumental and vocal tracks to avoid any potential monotony

* Very deep and ambient, minimal and yet really very soulful and tangible, not so much based on the technology alone which can make a lot of this genre seem a bit remote

* Second to none production, with his usual quality of layering and many varied sounds

Highlights for me are mainly the vocal tracks - obviously "Arcadia" as mentioned above, "Holdon" which a lot of you would own or have heard, "Fractacles Parts 1 & 2", which sound like the love child of a Thom Yorke / New Order / Nathan Fake and Seb Tellier cybersex session, and "Birds" and "Over & Over" which are both sleepers at first, but I can see them growing on me with every listen.

Also worth a mention are "Hailin' From The Edge" and "Headup".

The comment above is not disparaging against the instrumental tracks, quite the contrary, they are beautiful, again lush, structured, layered and wonderfully produced. It's just I've always been a sucker for some form of vocal overlay, as long as it keeps within the framework of the song.

A great release, thoroughly recommended.