Ott – Blumenkraft

Unfortunately I also fall into the catagory of not necessarily understanding the hype surrounding this album. The first and last tracks are great, make no mistakes there, but the rest of it just sort of floats along treading familiar ground. Production is top notch though!

I just like that first piece, especially the way the intro fits into it. The rest really isn't for me.

This has to be my all-time favorite record in any genre. Have you have previously been into psychedelic downbeats like Shpongle and Shulman and just love it when those dubby vibes shines through? Then this is what you want to hear. Production and composition is so far beyond topnotch that other psychill releases fade bleakly next to this one. Do not miss.

Ott is a guy who has been around making music for a long time, but I still don`t know his real name! He obviously prefers to keep it a secret. People really got their eyes up for him in 2002 when he surprisingly released an album full of remixed Hallucinogen tracks. A great album full of chilled dub versions of originally melodic Goa trance tracks. Soon after this release we heard the rumour that this guy was going to release an Ott album too, and the expectations has really been high for this album. He has also released several tracks on various compilations. Electronic dub music is a style that has been around since the first half of the nineties. At that time, labels like Planet Dog Recordings released some of the best quality dub with compilations like Planet Dub (1995) etc. This kind of music has probably grown out of reggae music, with a lot of the same slow tempo etc. But in the dub genre they have switched the reggae singing with all kinds of influences from other music styles and sounds. For many people, a lot of this dub style has sounded a bit boring after a few listens, because a lot of it doesn`t vary much. Ott is one of the few real dub artists who manage to make this kind of music to something really interesting and varied! Ott really knows how to calm us down, with all his varied dub influenced by a lot of different music styles and his great selection of beautiful sounds and melodies. Something for those of you who like modern dub released from Liquid Sound Design, Interchill and Backroom Beats etc. One of my favourite albums of all times. Recommended!

I read an interview with Ott, and he said one thing, that this album is not a dub or trance album, but music album. I think its really important because its mixed styles. For one moment it becomes slow, downtempo then it slowly becomes more and more faster, just like psychedelic trance....
A good album just to relax after whole day of work. A must for all Sphongle lovers...

I loved Ott's contributions to the Backroom Beats compilations, and when I learnt he did production and editing on shpongle's astonishing masterpiece "tales of the inexpressible", I was very excited at the prospect of a solo album.

On first listen, I was impressed. The production is basically flawless, for starters. Musically? It wasnt a rerun of the Shpongle release - I immediately got a good sense of a distinctly Ottish vision running throughout the album which is something I always look for in LPs. Nevertheless it shared the lightening tour through global influences, incorporating things which by all rights should be laughable and stupid but somehow work brilliantly.

I established that tracks 1, 3 and 9 - especially 9, perhaps my favourite track of 2003 in any genre - are absolutely magnificent, but felt the rest of the album was... hmm... I wouldnt be so harsh as to say "filler", but it seemed to be covering similar territory to those highlights, without quite the same spark of genius.

Hearing the album on shrooms soon corrected that view, though, revealing the entire album as an intricate, interesting, groovy and quirky tour of discovery and magic. Strongly recommended.

I'm not much of a reviewer, but I had to post a comment that this CD is simply one of my all time favorites. Ott's genius as a producer shines through on here, from deep dubby bass to lush soundscapes and great female vocals on some tracks. Smoked Glass and Chrome is something I can listen to over and over, as it has the three things mentioned above--in just the right magical mix.

Highly highly recommended