| Artist |
| Patenbrigade:Wolff |
| Title |
| Baustoff (Popmusik Fur Rohrleger) |
| Format/Cat |
| CD ZWE 012 |
| Label |
| Zweieck Recordings |
| Style |
| EBM |
| Date of review |
| 8/10 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 6th February 2011 |
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For many, PB:W were the surprise package at last year's Infest &, while I've not heard any of their previous releases (& there are a few) this latest album from Sven 'Dust Of Basement' Wolff & Lance Murdock mixes some excellent dancey electro numbers with relatively short industrial/electronica interludes that mix rhythms & abstract effects with radio samples, the latter being not that dissimilar in spirit to what Kraftwerk were doing way back in 1975!! These contribute towards the impressive-looking 19-track listing & do have some good ideas going for them such as the soaring chords that grace the closing 'Abbau' or the spoken voice of 'Die Walze' while 'Arbeit An Der Oberleitung' (these titles don't exactly trip off the tongue, do they?) is a nicely atmospheric number; however, due to their brevity, they really only end up as fillers between the good tracks & it's these more accessable numbers that provide the highlights, assisted by the array of fine vocalists that the duo have enlisted, the men doing the dancier tracks, the women the slower ones. Among the latter are Julia Beyer who turns in a typical & appropriately sultry perfomance on 'Sun After The Rain', Nadine Seltzer, who similarly adds a touch of class to the moving 'My Mountain' & was responsible for the main melody too & Antje Schulz whose slightly more girlish style proves effective enough on 'Dreh Mir Die Zeit Zuruck' while Antje Deckmann's classy vocals contribute towards making 'Voyage' the excellent piece it is, moving & soothing with lyrics based on a poem by Baudelaire, now that's class for you!! On the male side Andre Hartung's recognisable style works well on the poppy 'Das Kreftfeld', which sits in the same rhythmically strong poppy style he's explored with Sero. Overdose & the slightly more laidback approach of 'Never Neverland', certain elements of which are slightly reminiscent of the dreamier end of 90s house. Similarly, Stefan Leuckert proves his worth on the infectiously catchy '"Fehler 404' while, as the album reaches towards its climax, Alex 'Painbastard' Pitzinger's harsher voice gives the already rugged 'Abrissbude' some extra zing. All in all, then, this is a fine album & while the shorter numbers don't quite hit the spot there's still enough good stuff to make this a worthwhile purchase.
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