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Avg: 3.5 (108 ratings)
- Date Released: May 26, 2008
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Electronic Ambient
- Label: Get Physical Music / Zebralution
Berlin’s electro-house crossover kings get even sleeker.
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We Say...
2006’s Movements, the first album by Berlin electro-house duo Booka Shade, wormed its way into the lay listener’s ear by couching its freaky noises in gliding grooves. The album warranted multiple listens to tease its secrets out, and that subtlety — this was dance music that didn’t bash you over the head with how ecstatic it was — made it appeal to club-rats and non-dance-lovers alike.
If anything, The Sun & the Neon Light is even subtler, and it’s not exactly surprising that it’s also slicker and sleeker than the debut. But once Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier’s constructs click — it took me three full listens — you begin to notice the many details they sneak in. The muffled vocals on tracks like “Control Me” and “Sweet Lies” give the songs a fluorescent-glow resemblance to, respectively, Depeche Mode and New Order at their most twinklingly robotic.
Not including the come-down “Comacabana” and self-explanatorily subtitled “You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me (J’s Lullaby),” the album’s sequence peaks higher as it goes: “Karma Car” features a heaving, follow-the-bouncing-ball keyboard hook, while “Psychameleon” rides a lightly shuffling beat and slurping cascades of synth bass. It’s the definition of a grower — the more attention you pay it, the greater the reward. -
They Say...
On their third official full-length, German duo Booka Shade get serious about the album format and deliver a set of rainy-day tracks influenced by the Berlin (Tangerine Dream) and Düsseldorf (Cluster) schools of electronic music with a touch of Giorgio Moroder, especially the man's Midnight Express soundtrack. At worst, like on the opening "Outskirts," reverence for these classic tones and an overwhelming desire to be earnest make the music surprising lifeless. Half of The Sun & the Neon Light ends up sounding like an entry in the Mind's Eye computer animation video series, where slick, serviceable sounds provide pleasant backdrops for futuristic dreaming. Light drumbeats from the machine sit under well-crafted layers of synths that echo into the distance and the occasional vocoder vocal crops up to offer the restrained hooks and forgettable, unobtrusive lyrics. If Booka Shade are trying to transition from a club to a headphone act, the duo's quest is undermined by the highlights -- "Dusty Boots," "Karma Car," and the wonderful space-disco track "Charlotte" -- all of which thump a little louder, causing knees to bend and hips to shake. Loyal listeners looking for a more "personal" album from the band will have fewer complaints, but the casual fan will miss the more dynamic and vibrant elements of their earlier work.
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| 01. |  |
Outskirts
|
4:53 |
|
| 02. | |
Duke
|
4:32 |
|
| 03. | |
Dusty Boots
|
3:25 |
|
| 04. | |
Control Me
|
5:08 |
|
| 05. | |
Solo City
|
4:34 |
|
| 06. | |
Charlotte
|
4:31 |
|
| 07. | |
Numbers (Radio Mix)
|
3:26 |
|
| 08. | |
The Sun & The Neon Light
|
4:29 |
|
| 09. | |
Sweet Lies
|
3:58 |
|
| 10. | |
Karma Car (Album Version)
|
4:17 |
|
| 11. | |
Psychameleon
|
4:56 |
|
| 12. | |
Planetary
|
4:08 |
|
| 13. | |
Comacabana
|
4:33 |
|
| 14. | |
You Don't Know What You Mean To Me (J's Lullaby)
|
5:12 |
|
14 Total Tracks, 62:02 Total Length
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