TOBIAS レコード& CD

Review: RECOMMENDED
With sounds that might remind some of the USS Discovery's spore hub jump drive in Star Trek: Discovery, it should go without saying Tobias' Hall Ov Fame sits in the futurist end of ambient and drone music. But that's not to suggest there isn't also plenty of humanism happening here, too. The lush, perhaps ironically warm tones of 'Abandoned' come with added, inaudible vocals, albeit even these sound like they might be reeling off departure times for the day's starship flights.

Geeking out aside (blame the producer's clear knack for realising the kinds of noises that transport you directly into the cosmos), this is a record of deep layers, texture upon texture seeming to move in tandem, moments of harmony dissipating into simple refrains, before the next movement begins. Stunning.

Review: Tobias Freund has become one of the most well-respected techno artists in the last 15 years, releasing on a successiom of important labels like Ostgut Ton, Logistic, Mule Musiq and Wagon Repair, to name but a few. His newest release is a full length called Das Neue Elektronische Volkslied and is released on the very hot Danza Tribale, offering an array of strong underground tracks that explore various styles under the techno umbrella. There are hard, dramatic percussion stormers like 'Rated-R' or 'Nuclear Device'. There are powerful and intense builders like 'Perceiver' or ' Rise Of The Robots'. Then you have mysteriously eerie and dark minimal tracks like 'The Continent Of Reason' or 'A Wise Precaution'. Overall, the record is full of commanding high powered darker techno that demands your attention.