Number 5 of 2006 — Ellen Allien & Apparat: Orchestra of Bubbles

German musician and DJ Ellen Allien, founder of Berlin’s BPitch Control, makes dancefloor techno, whereas Sascha Ring (aka Apparat) appears to be more interested in sound. German techno – truly the sound of machines – shouldn’t work with the brainiac tones and rhythms of intelligent dance music. This collaborative album succeeds by granting these disciplines their own spaces which enables them to collide gracefully. The title, Orchestra of Bubbles, is apt.

Turbo Dreams gives listeners no chance to become accustomed to this joint venture. This opening track rushes in, creating signature techniques to be picked up elsewhere: multilayered syncopated and glitchy percussion, delays and warm analog synths. There’s an inherent tension which just about keeps everything in order.

This album isn’t simply about technique. The obvious attention to detail creates a structure which ironically gives more opportunities to break rules. There are three elements which take this further than one might expect, forcing the exposure of subtle emotions.

Way Out begins with the most striking of these: the introduction of Ellen’s voice. Processed so as to give it more air, she carries the main melody of the track. The lyrics sparse and fragmented. A piercing steamy synth cuts through in a unsuccessful attempt to drag the track back to the production line. We then hear the second element: real strings. Two clear signs that this album is intentionally soulful – binding traditional song elements to the mechanistic properties of techno which detractors consider unfeeling. Thereafter, Way Out simply soars. The following track, Retina is a harsh come-down, taking the strings darker: using looped cello stabs and throbbing beats to disorientate the listener.

Ellen also sings sparingly on the tangy Sleepless, propelled by crunching beats, and she whispers through Bubbles, the melancholic closer which is all filters, delays and loops. The highlight of the album however is Do Not Break, which throws vocal snatches and hip-hop scratches into something approaching a sibling of Turbo Dreams, except with more beats and a gorgeous crest that combines these vocals with keys and a rich pad sequence.

The latter tracks of Orchestra of Bubbles introduce the third element, being surprisingly bass heavy: Metric lightens Retina’s strings but then pops them on top of quivvering dubstep. Under clatters through empty lift shafts chased by an ominous sub-bass. Apparat turns up to croon on Leave Me Alone, but this ends up sounding like a hungover Röyksopp.

The overall impression of this album is of beats trapped inside almost infinite reflections. Penultimate track Edison makes this explicit and experimental with dissolved cascades of falling ping-pong balls that back elegiac padded keys and a plucked zither.

You could argue that with Orchestra of Bubbles, Ellen Allien and Apparat are reconstructing techno, with a plan to take it into the realm of song. This album is a worthy attempt. However there was one other album released in 2006, which did this much better. That album is further up my list.

iTunes UK
Amazon UK