“More in the Berlin School style but still perfumed of Binar's madness, Tales of the Uninformed Part II gets the upper hand on the first part”
1 In Search of Bliss 8:02 2 Ratchett Job 14:53 3 The Eternal Parp 5:35 4 All the Fish 11:55 5 The Last Hurrah 10:51 6 Binarial Mirrors 10:51 Binar Music (DDL 62:46) (V.F.) (Berlin School, Psybient)
Doubtless like you, I asked myself the question: why 2 different volumes (it's a little more expensive) instead of a double album of this performance of Binar at the Lea Hall Summer Bawl? And I found the answer after having heard the first 50 minutes of TALES OF THE UNINFORMED PATRT II: If Tales of the Uninformed Part I offered a delicious envelope of Psybient, this 2nd part offers a more Berlin School approach where the Psybient is more discreet and leaves all of its psychopathic poetry to the main influences of Paul Nagle and Andy Pickford.
In Search of Bliss introduced this second part with a dark breeze from where emerge mooing of machines and layers of opera voices which hum in an ambience of apocalypse. We notice at once these sound effects which remind these dialogues of Tangerine Dream from the period White Eagle and Hyperborea; two albums which have revolutionized the rhythmic approach of contemporary EM. A delicate movement of sequences draws a cylindrical arc which rolls on itself whereas chords are racing against current. Another movement of sequences, coupled to effects of Bongos and Tablas percussions, give more relief to an ambient rhythm which makes admirably the link between two eras of Edgar Froese's sound vessel. This rhythmic approach serves more of a background to the hatching of a multitude of sound effects while the synth layers are wrapping of an artificial heat this hatching of sounds and this rhythmic which accentuate the pressure without sacrificing its meditative hold. And the more we move forward and the more we have this feeling to hear a tribute to Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream in an approach always a little bit psychedelic. After a good 2 minutes of sound oddities and of anesthetic layers, Ratchett Job emerges from the mists with a nice movement of sequences which give the impression of seeing (and to hear) a herd of innocent Bambi jumping and playing innocently under the starving eyes of a pack of wolves. This superb movement takes place underneath a cosmic sky. And whereas some keyboard keys, of which the funeral touch adds a dramatic touch, fall heavily, another line of sequences makes cavort and spark its keys in an adjacent movement. Percussions, coupled to slamming of hands, amplify the pace, always rather static, of the tempo while the keyboard is getting more melodious. Slow and mesmerizing, the movement of Ratchett Job regurgitates other sequences which teem with more vigour, while the scattered harmonies of a keyboard in a melancholy mode scatters its last tears.
This is some great Binar here who throws itself in the too short The Eternal Parp and its very lively rhythm. It's a kind of mixture between Techno and e-rock with splendid twisted solos which raise the charm of the strong sequencing of Ratchett Job. The fusion and the symbiosis are totally completed between these two titles. We always stay in the influences of Berlin School and its hybrid poles with All the Fish. If the intro is in the field of Psybient, the rhythm that unstitches it brings us towards a very good progressive e-rock where a violin cries under the blows of resonant percussions and the kicks of a very good movement of the sequencer which accelerates the pace. We are in the pinnacle of this concert which reaches its end with The Last Hurrah and of its synth solos harmonized in the spirit of Edgar Froese which coo on a heavy structure. A structure stimulated by a skillful mixture between electronic percussions and these movements of sequences a la Chris Franke that have charmed our senses and our ears and which also transported the last 50 minutes of this delicious meeting between Psybient and Berlin School. Binarial Mirrors seems to be a recorded in studio title which has nothing to do with the concert of the Lea Hall Summer Bawl.
It's some good and very aggressive Binar with a good tempo which eyes the border between Techno and Electronica. It's also an excellent invitation to the fans of a more Berlin School style to hear this other delicious side of Binar. I have liked Tales of the Uninformed Part I! And nevertheless, TALES OF THE UNINFORMED PATRT II is upper to it because of this more Berlin School side, but undoubtedly because that Binar has also lost nothing of its very adventurous identity throughout this second part of this concert at the Lea Hall Summer Bawl.
Sylvain Lupari (December 10th, 2016) ****½*
Available at Andy Pickford Bandcamp