“Mostly on dancing modes, Berlin Shades offers structures of rhythms driven by a plethora of percussive elements and sequences fill of sparkling and lighting tones”
1 Blooming Minds 3:23 2 Signs of Attraction 12:22 3 eMotion 5:36 4 Are Protons Stable? 7:48 5 Berlin Shades 5:34 6 Electric Echo 4:55 7 Soundtrails 5:45 Alba Ecstasy Music
(DDL 45:24) (V.F.) (Berlin School, E-Rock & EDM)
If Bergenon had left me a little on my appetite, BERLIN SHADES loads my ears fully with its 45 minutes of electronic rhythm which flirts with a kind of EDM strung in the nuances of a Berliner model of EM. Apart from the staging of Signs of Attraction, the music of this album, offered only for download, offers structures of rhythms driven by a plethora of percussive elements and sequences with tones as sparkling as these bubbles of fizzy water which bubble in our nostrils. And yep, this is another nice album of Alba Ecstasy. The man is so regular! Like this friend that we always like to see again and hear... Short but very catchy, Blooming Minds is an electronic anthem energized by an avalanche of percussions in mode; crush my bones and make me float. Drums and percussive effects fuel a sonic fauna which makes overflow the capacity of my ears to assimilate all these strikes that decorate a structure whose life is related to a superabundance of industrial, and even organic, elements of percussions. The synth launches a very melodic idea, kind of Jean-Michel Jarre period Revolutions, which hooks as much the eardrums that this spasmodic rhythm sets fire to our feet. Too short not to like and not long enough to snub this approach of Electronic Rock & Dance! Signs of Attraction is in the tone of the good New Berlin School flavored with a little of madness. After an ambient introduction charged with melancholic sighs, the synth is as beautiful as it is morose here, the sequencer activates a structure that waddles from one ear to the other. A bass pulsation gets in the movement a few seconds later, giving a depth field that befits the songs of a synth more and more attractive. A movement of bass sequences harpoons this structure a little before the 5th minute, initiating a lively and fluid rhythm, in spite of its spasms, with a synth just as dynamic and which follows the rhythm with a harmonic spirit. Some good New Berlin School, with a synth in mode; fright me at night in the moods of Klaus Schulze's 85-90 years or closer to our era; Remy. Signs of Attraction depicts here the interconnections and symbioses between different structures of parallel rhythms and confluent in this album. eMotion is a ball of energy that glitters on the spot and sparkle of highly electronic tones on a sequencer from which the nervous keys are jumping in jerks in a sound magma filled with unruly sequences and felted and/or gassed percussion effects. Some of these percussive effects cross the silence to join Are Protons Stable? which is a more complex energy ball and definitely more on the edge of implosion than eMotion. Stationary and magnetizing, the rhythm is nevertheless lively and hyper jerky with sequences that form lines of spasmodic rodeos. A little like these lines of static balls, the sequences remain trapped and sparkle like dozens of bubbles bursting in a tube too narrow, spilling their rages of freedom in electronic percussions fed with green wood. The title-track also exploits a lively approach. The keys of a sequencing line leap briskly, like a horde of daredevils on jumping sticks hopping in a corridor too small, too narrow and undulating on a long course. A line of bass pulsations spits out a swarm of resonances which weaves paranoid chants and spread their vampiric shadows over this rhythm typed of vivid and incisive strikes. Unstable Up-tempo? It looks like this like it can also look like these discos of the future such as put in images by the people of George Lucas in the Star Wars saga. Electric Echo is in IDM mode with another futuristic psychedelic approach. The melody is good and quite catchy while the hopping rhythm is forged on organic sequences and other more conventional ones, which are never on the same beat, while the drums are still frozen in an eclectic tonal pond which tells me that Mihail Adrian Simion has done a very critical research work for these percussions highly stylized, one must not forget the sequences too, for this album. Voice effects hum on this title and are gurgling on Soundtrails, a Techno for Zombies, smarter and less amorphous, which flirts with Break-Dance. The rhythm is heavy and hammered by good percussion while the synth launches ear-catching solos which spin and flit in a decor of percussion which fill my ears with a questioning charm...How he continues to did that?
Alba Ecstasy's music has become my guilty pleasure. Month after month, this Romanian artist offers its latest finds, he is an engineer in computer development for music, in albums where always drag 1 to 3 small jewels. And sometimes more ... like here! I spent 45 very good minutes where my predatory ears of sound devoured a panoply of rhythms as seductive than audacious and very catchy. EDM and Berlin School! What could be better? Sylvain Lupari (May 25th, 2018) *****
Available on Alba Ecstasy's Bandcamp
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