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Avg: 3.5 (68 ratings)
- Date Released: March 4, 2008
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Techno
- Label: BPitch Control / Finetunes
Arching, thumping electro pop from Ellen Allien's camp.
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We Say...
Like his boss Ellen Allien, BPitch Control signee Sascha Funke pursues different ends depending upon the format of any given release. While his singles, over the years, have been getting ever more emphatic — the five tracks spread between his In Between Days and Auf Aix strain elegantly to break through to another plane, like sad rockets resisting gravity — his albums burrow cozily into the comforts of electro-pop. There's still a solid techno underpinning: long, linear arcs overshadow verse/chorus structures, and at least a few cuts here — the bell-toned "Double-Checked," the chugging "Lotre (Mehr Fleisch)" — are fortified to slot seamlessly into any DJ's nightclub set.
But even the toughest tracks, like "We Are Facing the Sun," with its garish leads and bare-knuckled piano chords, are unmistakably melancholic. The title cut is far more bittersweet than its sticky namesake, layering poignant synthesizer washes with the reverbed pianos and yearning guitars you'd expect from the Cure or even U2. The drifting "Summer Rain" and the mid-tempo "Feather," both absolutely true to their names, wouldn't be out of place on one of the Pop Ambient compilations from Funke's former label, Kompakt, while the closing "The Fortune Cookie Symphony" makes an unusual fusion of Orb-styled ambiance and FX-treated house a cappella stylings.
On first listen, the album may feel slightly, well, slight: sentimentalism requires a smidgen of grit to adequately bare its bleak heart. But perhaps a kind of emotional dullness is precisely what defines Funke in a funk: he's at his best with tentative, brooding cuts like "Take a Chance With Me," where enveloping bass and a just-out-of-reach high end leave you hanging delicately, not desperately, in the lurch. -
They Say...
Sascha Funke released a series of generally well-received (if uneven) 12" singles between 2003's Bravo and this, his second production album. Tracks like "To Be," "In Between Days," and "Auf Aix," all released on Bpitch Control, his home base since departing from Kompakt in 2001, enhanced several mix albums. Made of all-new material -- "Double-Checked," while issued as a stand-alone single, was released almost synchronously with the CD and double vinyl -- Mango is much more about moods and textures than Bravo, the majority of it coming across as a subtle way of mining for film score work. The entirety of the sequence plays out without a second of controlled chaos or anything resembling unbridled restlessness, with only "Double Checked" (one of the album's highlights, a bell-and-handclap-enhanced charger with a vampirish spoken bit) and "Lôtre (Mehr Fleisch)" as possible sops to those who are expecting a set suited for dancing or exceeding the speed limit. It all seems unassuming by design, but the danger in that approach is crossing the wrong side of the fine line that separates cunning subtlety from unaffecting tepidity. No track is outright poor, though "Chemin des Figons" comes dangerously close; its overly simplistic, staid foundation and downcast guitar thrums could almost pass as a missing instrumental by post-punk poseurs She Wants Revenge. At the other extreme is the album's opener, a darkly glowing, gorgeously melancholy track in which you can really lose yourself. The remainder of the material, while not incredibly remarkable, is easily enjoyable for background listening or deep thought. One of Bpitch Control's more durable and well-made full-lengths, if not a crowning achievement.
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| 01. |  |
Mango |
7:00 |
|
| 02. | |
We Are Facing The Sun |
7:10 |
|
| 03. | |
Feather |
5:33 |
|
| 04. | |
Take A Chance With Me |
6:13 |
|
| 05. | |
Summer Rain |
3:16 |
|
| 06. | |
Double Checked |
7:15 |
|
| 07. | |
Lôtre (Mehr Fleisch) |
7:07 |
|
| 08. | |
Chemin Des Figons |
8:16 |
|
| 09. | |
The Fortune Cookie Symphony |
3:05 |
|
09 Total Tracks, 54:55 Total Length
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