“Chosen as the album of the year in 1993, Different Stories and Twisted Tales is a fascinating opus where lot of styles are merging like ...different stories in twisted styles”
1 Twisted Tales 17:04 2 Amor Facit 6:19 3 The Call 12:35 4 Cuivienen 14:58 5 Gwahir 6:10 6 Omnus Mundi 6:19 7 Different Stories 11:05 GROOVE | GR-100
(CD 75:09) (V.F.)
(Berlin School)
Initially released on Cue Records label in 1993, DIFFERENT STORIES & TWISTED TALES was voted album of the year by German EM radio show, Schwingungen. Reedited and remixed by Groove in 2004, this 9th opus of Ron Boots was concocted with the help of his long time friends; Harold Van Der Heijden and Guido Negraszus on electronic percussions, the guitarist Klaus Hoffmann Hoock on The Call and Eric Van Der Heijden on synths. Old friends and skilled musicians which oversize the melodious approach of Ron Boots on an album with tangents as diversified as surprising.
Loud and resonant pulsatory sequences are hopping and waving on the spectral synth of Twisted Tales' opening, also choose as the best EM track of 1993. Good strikings of percussions, with a kind of industrial typing sounds, pierce with difficulty a dense mellotron veil before that some solid knocks of drums initiate a first rhythmic bend. A heavy and sustained one beneath a sonorous firmament streaks of synth shooting stars. Answering to percussions which resound in stereo echo, the beat intensifies on a skin-tight mellotron and on keyboards chords with crystal xylophone sonorities, where Harold Van Der Heijden's dexterity can be hear in a slightly atmospheric passage, recalling the universe of Klaus Schulze on Dreams. This moment of tranquility frees a rich sound force which guides us towards a mind-blowing final where twisted and serpentine synth solos shout from everywhere, squabbling around percussions which roll on an ambivalent structure that became definitely more dynamic. Amor Facit is more ambient. It's a beautiful track which embraces Steve Roach's sonorities, just like the poetic Omnus Mundi and its tribal pulsations of which the echo forges a light tempo that beats among celestial choruses from a rich and enveloping mellotron. It's a beautiful piece of music for tortured souls. Composed in collaboration of Klaus Hoffman-Hoock, The Call begins delicately in a bed of arpeggios which scintillate under delicate electronic percussions. Gently Klaus' guitar frees some sweet notes which introduce us to a very beautiful synth solo, before that the electric guitar of the German magician pierces The Call with gorgeous incisive solos. Boots and Hoffman-Hoock is a union that embraces the fragrances of Pink Floyd and Mind Over Matter, especially with the fusion synth, mellotron and guitar which encircles The Call.
Cuiviene is a superb softness. At once romantic and oneiric, it flows like a long river of serenity with its astral intro floating around a soft fluty mellotron. Its enchanting breathes, as well as some synth layers which bloom on a shroud scintillating of dreamy prisms, embrace the sounds of the very first music of Kitaro. It's a soft title, almost meditative which gets lively with fine synth sparkles and soft pulsations with a timber a bit resonant, pouring towards a cheerful finale thanks to a piano more in Jazz tones than serene and whose notes have a biggest impact than the soft contemplative reveries of the mellotron. Bells and a heavy orchestral arrangement initiate Gwahir. Then a heavy resounding sequence amplifies the sonority without ever accentuating the rhythmic part. It's a loud title which moves its arpeggios in a sound universe with orchestral ambiguities and on a discrete synth whose whistles add an endearing depth. Different Stories concludes the album with an electronic approach equivalent to Twisted Tales. The intro is passive with bass pulsations that intermingle with heteroclite tones beneath the veils of a sweet mellotron and of a drum which hammers a loud and curt movement, embracing a fine sensual approach with a good bass line that throbs among crystal-clear notes. Limpid notes dropped by two keyboards which subdivide a melody to make a contrast with the heaviness of slow beat from the drum. The whole thing evolves in a superb sequencing approach which is encircled by long and sinuous synth solos, zigzagging with acuity among a nebulosity filled by mellotron choirs.
I did enjoy this DIFFERENT STORIES & TWISTED TALES which I think is a good way to start building your EM collection. After all, a lot of people voted it as an inescapable work in the chessboard of EM. Its different stories on much variable styles that pull the minimalist EM out of its bosom to hug rhythms in constant evolution without ever neglect the harmonious approach so dear to Ron Boots.
Sylvain Lupari (March 17th, 2010) ***¾**
Available at Groove nl.