“Voted as 94's best EM album, it's another strong album from Ron Boots who leaves his imprints in a style that is now know as the Netherlands School”
1 Detachment of Worldly Affairs I 11:54
2 Cool Down 7:07
3 Detachment of Worldly Affairs II 7:49
4 Lachrymation 12:60
5 Breath the Living Air 9:55
6 Free Flying Spirits 13:45
7 Far Bounderies 9:20
(CD 72:28) (V.F.)
(Sequencer-based Netherlands School)
I must admit that exploring the Ron Boots' universe is the equivalent of a great treasure hunt. After my pleasant hearing of Different Stories and Twisted Tales, here I am exploring the sonic twists and turns of DETACHMENT OF WORDLY AFFAIRS; an astonishing album where heavy rhythms are linked to more cosmic, even heterogeneous, passages in order to create one of the good albums of the 90's. An album where we also capture the clear influence of Ron Boots on artists such as que Rainbow Serpent, Pyramid Peak, Axess, Gert Emmens, Certamen and many other names that furnish our ears with a musical approach called the Netherlands School.
And it starts with metallic bellowing that roar among floating sound hoops. Detachment of Worldly Affairs I offers an intro with eclectic tones that come alive with a good sequencing pace. A sequence that undulates on a warm bass structure to which are added the good drum hits of Harold Van Der Heijden who unites his rhythm to a keyboard with jerky chords and a xylophone with crystalline strikes. The keyboard is isolated and escapes to breathe a melodious minimalism approach that catches the ear. The rhythmic structure amplifies its presence around synth solos twirling languidly on these subdivided sequences where their echoes shape a pleasant melodious canvas. As always, Ron Boots' musical universe is dense and rich. And this album picks up pretty much where Different Stories and Twisted Tales left off. Cool Down brings back the rhythm in a proportion closer to the electronic ballad with a soft synth with the breaths of a virtual sax and with hesitant chords on a bass structure which pulsates with a delicate dreamy beat. It is also a sweet electronic ballad that occupies the introduction of Detachment of Worldly Affairs II. A warm opening which flows towards a structure with richer tones, dramatic bursts and its cosmic elements which float between good synth solos and a cadence with slightly syncopated spirals.
After a slow intro stuffed with tones of twisted metal which melts into a synth with sinister breaths, a superb sequence animates Lachrymation. Initially she jumps innocently, joining her modest rhythm to percussions with subtle tribal beats which animate a tempo coated with a synthesized velvet. Another more harmonious sequence sticks to this astonishing astral dance which beats under a soft padded synth before embracing an ambient phase. A short phase where the rhythm resumes its rights under solos with spectral impulses. A very good track which is a classic of sequenced EM. After a shattering opening, Breath the Living Air takes a very ambient flight with a bass line which undulates under a sky covered with cosmic polyhedral moved by a synth with multiple breaths and crystalline chords. It is a strange nothingness of lights and sounds pierced by the ghostly voice of Ron Boots which generates a kind of cerebral hypnosis. After this cerebral rest, Free Flying Spirits brings us out of this prism-tones coma with a superb set of sequences which gasp in the shade of good percussion strikes and synthesized streaks which draw an extremely powerful musical framework. Of all the EM albums I've heard lately, this song must be one of the heaviest and most melodious to cut its way through my ears. It is rich rhythm which takes root on sequences whose vibrations and resonances make a perpetual sequence on tribal percussions which add a surrealist touch to a totally unbridled title. Far Bounderies concludes DETACHMENT OF WORDLY AFFAIRS with a cosmic excursion where everything is in suspension. A long ambient track with its bursts of keyboards which adorn a firmament of heavy synth waves with astral choirs chanting an ode to serenity.
Remixed and reissued in 1999 by the Groove nl label, DETACHMENT OF WORDLY AFFAIRS is a jewel from Ron Boots who multiplies the unbridled rhythms on daring sequences and develops a melodious approach that suits his style so well which is quite robust. A very beautiful album, in my opinion his best of this period, which was awarded by EM fans as the best album of 1994 where, once again, Ron Boots approaches all the musical forms of a Berlin School which has become the source of the Netherlands School movement.
Sylvain Lupari (March 17th, 2010) *****
Available at Groove nl.