Cristian Vogel - Station 55 - Release Info And Reviews

[Lady E]

ARTIST: CRISTIAN VOGEL
TITLE: STATION 55
LABEL: NOVAMUTE
FORMATS: CD/2XLP
CATALOGUE NO: NOMU149CD/NOMU149LP
RELEASE DATE: 4th JULY 2005

Tracklist (CD Version)
Typewriter of the Dead
The Time Lock
1968.Holes
On The Line
Somewhere In The Waves, We Will Find You
Neon Underground
Turn On, Tune In, Drown Out
Arctic Wolfman
Monkey Inc.
Lovelights

Tracklist (Double Vinyl)
The Time Lock
1968.Holes
Lovelights
On the Line
Somewhere In The Waves, We Will Find You
Neon Underground
Turn On, Tune In, Drown Out
Arctic Wolfman
Monkey Inc




Cristian Vogel’s productions never stand still, but ‘Station 55’ is going to blow away even those used to his mastery of electronics, space, and funk. Using styles and sounds from all the periods of his previous work, including the wild weightless techno-soul he explored with Super_Collider, he’s reached a whole new level of completeness for an electronic album. From the warped waltz-time haunted-house atmospherics of ‘Typewriter Of The Dead’ to the digital jazz, warm sub-bass and Kraftwerkian keyboard lines of ‘Neon Underground’, melody and pure funk are at the forefront the whole way through. Though certain sounds may recall other music (the total 80s electrofunk bassline in ‘The Time Lock’, a hint of Peter Hook in ‘Monkey Inc’, melted acoustic guitars in closing track ‘Lovelights’), the mind-fryingly crisp and new sounds could only come from 2005, and this could only be a Cristian Vogel album. The relentless panic of ‘1968 Holes’, featuring the crazed electro punk acid queen vocals of Kevin Blechdom, and the brooding, pumping bassy dreamscape of ‘Turn On, Tune In, Drown Out’ featuring Franz Treichler of the legendary Young Gods are the most likely to be taken up by DJs, but there is nothing here that – played over a big system – won’t pick dancers up, whirl them around and leave them dazed, exhausted and happy, not knowing what’s hit them but glad it did.

It’s a listening album too, though. Cristian has always been the master of the subliminal melody, of the tune that gives up new secrets every time you listen to it, and that’s truer than ever on ‘Station 55’. This album has a story: not necessarily a single thread running through it, but a recurrence of sound and patterns which suck you into its sci-fi world of mysterious radio stations broadcasting number series from the underground, freaked numerology, time travelling entities and monkeys with typewriters. The atmosphere is built by the poetic voices of Blechdom, Treichler, of frequent Vogel collaborator Max Turner of the Meteorites and Puppetmastaz, of Madrid-based artist Burbuja, and of Barcelona band Virüs, who Cristian describes as having a “dark, sensual and science-fiction based lyrical universe� – and of course by Cristian’s sounds. These sounds – though they may be as weird, strung-out and full of digital crack’n’pop as anything by sound experimenters like Autechre or Fennesz – are always human, physical, moving and musical. Everything, even the harsh rattling of ‘On The Line’ or the sparse, desolate pulse of ‘Arctic Wolfman’, is infused with the spirit of the dance and the funk which has always informed techno. ‘Station 55’ is an album to think to and to lose yourself to, to dance to and to sink into; it’s an album to terrify and delight, and an album that keeps on giving more and more every time you hear it. Play it again and again.


Read about the first single from the album here