“Elektrik Cowboys is a musical journey to the land of cowboys on gentle rhythmic overlaps powered by a mesh of synth and sequences”
1 Geyser Field 15:30
2 On the Road 12:30
3 Montana Grooves 35:27
(Fanger & Schönwälder)
(CD 63:27) (V.F.)
(Berlin School)
Recorded during the Ricochet Gathering of 2007 in Montana USA, ELEKTRIK COWBOYS doesn't betray its roots with an opening on imaginary rails, a little as if we were aboard a ghost train wrapped in a synth with spectral waves. Clicks and ambient noises are heard among the strata of a synth and his mellotron habit which blows violin blades so characteristic to the music of Rainbow Serpent. Like a horse trotting dreamily, Geyser Field moves on with a gentle rhythm surrounded by fine shimmering arpeggios which delicately flit around this sequence and its light crescendo draped in mellotron's choruses whose final gets drawn like a vaporous return to the station. In a place where utopia stands alongside with an abstract reality and where the rhythm is surrounded by synth pads filled with mist in a delightfully ethereal atmosphere. On the Road hunts dust from Geyser Field before sculpting a chaotic and nervous rhythm, topped with an enveloping mellotron. It's a good Berlin School animated by a rhythm of bass sequences which is frantic and undulating. A more and more sustained rhythm which scrolls at full speed on percussions and the tssitt-tssitt of cymbals, solidifying the vision of a train rolling in an atmosphere full of undulating strata rich in its spectral choir. A cadence overhung by sequences fluctuating with the mountains and dunes that this rhythm winds through the American desert plains. A good contemporary Berlin School that attaches to the Montana Grooves wagon from Fanger & Schönwälder and a very spatial intro that rumbles in a static cosmic vision. Quietly, a spasmodic sequence modulates a finely jerky rhythm which is wrapped by elegant enveloping layers. The tempo becomes sharper and more incisive with loops which undulate on a structure whose slight crescendo fits the visions of the plains of the American West so well designed and initiated by Rainbow Serpent. This sequenced rhythm is lost in an ethereal fog bank around the 24th minute, exploiting perfectly the nocturnal and interstellar emotions of a journey as much cosmic as terrestrial which ends in a good dance of arpeggios in tones of xylophone tinkling on a bed of bubbling strata.
Different but not really considering the music of Rainbow Serpent, ELEKTRIK COWBOYS is a poetic ode to Berlin School style. A musical journey to the land of cowboys on gentle rhythmic overlaps powered by a mesh of synth and sequences. A soft and tender album.
Sylvain Lupari (September 21st, 2009) *****
Available at Ricochet Dream