Dust [Import]

What a nice surprise. Took me a while to get into it, but it's worth the effort.

It's a really odd mixture of acoustic, conventionally electric and synthesised instruments. And it's an odd collection of rhythms too. The beats are metronomic, bringing to mind NEU! but they vary from the strict 4/4. In fact. one track is, I think, a tango. So it's also dance music. In fact, it's disco dance music - in 'Flashy, Flashy', first a deep male voice and then our heroine proclaims, 'Flashy, flashy, flashy, disco lights', sounding almost like a tongue-in-cheek 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life'.

There's not much in the way of 'tunes' here - you can't really go away humming them. But they are hypnotic, laid-back and, in a steely sort of way, quite trippy. The cool, machine-like precision might be heard on 'My Tree', which is almost Kraftwerkian. But then 'Sun and Rain' has a simple guitar riff, with treated vocals, making it quite mellifluous and gentle. 'Should We Go Home' starts out droning but with organic jungle sounds fading in, before a straight 2/4 beat takes over, pausing for a quirky synth riff before the jungle sounds merge back in with the beat. It's gently dreamy and a nice contrast to the surrounding tracks.

'Ever' is electro-mechanical, but with a lovely Escher-like marimba-sounding keyboard riff. Or maybe steel drum. It doesn't really go anywhere, but you're glad you took the trip anyway.

'You' is back to the mock-disco vocals and beat. 'I close my eyes, I hear the sounds of the night'. The heavy guitar beat is sort of reminiscent of Velvet Underground, but the riff is broken up by a 'cute' single vocal chorus.

'Dream' is almost pure electronica - Aphex Twin-style synth drum rhythms over a bubbling but very simple keyboard riff.

'Huibuh' has the Latin rhythms. It's lovely. Whispered vocals, and a gorgeous sort of Fender Rhodes keyboard sound. It's kind of a sleazy night-club, early hours of the morning sound. I love it - it's both a nice contrast to the before and after tracks but also a perfect little variation on the straight 4/4.

And the final track is pretty much back to the electronica. Again, a straight-forward beat, bass, rhythms but atonal chords, rising riffs that don't really go anywhere. Electro-mechanical fading to tom-tom and - end.

So, all in all, a very laid-back album, quite tongue-in-cheek, with a kind of Laurie Anderson humour perhaps, but nods to other 'elektronische musik' - and yet another back-catalogue I'm going to have to investigate. :-)

Dust sees Ellen Allien returning to the dancefloor after the relative abstraction of Sool. "Our Utopie" sets things up straightaway, with Allien's flanged vocals constrasting the chimes against the steady backbeat. Her compositions seem much more sparse this time around: "Flashy Flashy" doesn't have the tech-house seen of her classic Berlinette album ("Ever" will fill in that role later), but instead sticks with icy electro. "My Tree" expands the sonic palette by introducing woodwinds, while "Sun the Rain" similarly brings in some guitars into a warm soundscape, as if Allien were doing her own version of downtempo. But abstraction makes a slight return at the start of "Should We Go Home," which quickly resolves itself to the beat. The indie-rock stylings of "You," however, are a bit of a misstep, but the music box-tones on "Huibuh" make up for it. A fine return to form.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars