Paul Kalkbrenner - Self

lauferjerome, Jan 05, 2006

What we have here is one of the best albums ever released on BPitch, and one of the best albums ever released by Paul Kalkbrenner.

We can maybe call that Trance, but it is marvellous Trance. Not the cheap cheesy thing that uses to go with that word.
Its pretty hard to describe the effect that this record has on the mind.

Mr. Kalkbrenner has built up ten hypnotic and powerful deep techno tracks, based on repetitive spacey synth lines, inspired melancholic melodies and echoed glowing sounds, and all are perfectly produced.
Put the first track, and youll be immediately pushed in a dreamy flight 20 meters over the floor, in a floating journey through Berlin that will only stop several minutes after the needle has gone in the run-out groove.
The beats are strong and soft at the same time, amazingly powerful but not aggressive, and perfectly carry the foggy dance atmosphere of the tracks.

Playing one of these pieces in a club could certainly make people become totally crazy.

The track that has the difficult task to close the album, Final Page, does it like youd never imagine. Its a 2 minutes accordion composition! But what an amazing composition. An evolving melancholic melody layed on a bright jazz beat that manages to fit with the previous tracks and make you softly get out of the album. Genious.

Paul Kalkbrenner already released lots of great things before this album, but he shows here that he is still inventive and that he can do even better. He has never changed his style, but made it reach a sort of perfection. This mans got a magical formula to produce "his" techno, and Self is the proof of it.

Was the above review useful to you? Yes  No  (report)