Ellen Allien
Dust

Where can one find a good electronic product devoid of the plastic aberration of the current pop-commercial idyll, slightly cacophonous but not overly so, dynamic but not disconcerting, accessible enough for the average listener without being too easy or chart-topping? It's difficult to spot such a lost atoll, a tiny tip of an iceberg emerging from the icy ocean of mass dancehall DJs and pseudo DJs, yet something remains outside the confines of crass commercialism and, without flirting with the majors and their bland interests, manages to churn out a chain of intriguing, pleasant, and above all, balanced musical niches.

Ellen Allien, also known as Ellen Fraatz, a German, is part of this unchanged underground realm where the nose of the major music industry fails to capture the most delicate fragrances and the most intoxicating scents. Immersed in cosmopolitan Berlin, completely transformed after the fall of the Wall, artistically redesigned in its most remote moments, one of the most creative and avant-garde metropolises in Europe, Allien does nothing but continue to inspire and breathe in the wind of the reunifying postmodernism of the two Germanys which brings a fresh cultural model for the Old Continent (and I'm also talking about Italy and its false simplicities) and for the entire globe. Concentrating in her works the essence of the amazing productivity and experimentation born and matured between the underground and the above-ground of the German capital, Ellen plays - with great flair and commendable professionalism - with the acid-electronic suggestions of the Berlin school, expanding from classic synthpop-ambient to techno-trance ardor, to minimal dance and proto-British trip-hop.

The latest album, "Dust," released in 2010, is nothing but the cubed elevation of the great German melting pot and the entire European electronic tradition, adequately revisited and corrected to the current temporal (and also emotional) contemporaneity. Almost devoid of vocal parts, "Dust" offers a not overly long sequence - ten tracks - of songs where the sound component leaps onto the triumphal altar of absolute protagonism, an altar composed of sinusoidal rhythmic moods between the heavy and the light, the serene and the storm, the sweet and the bitter. A "magical" sequence of synthetic melodies that finds its best moments in the trance unease of Flashy Flashy, in the tribal-electroclash asceticism of the pumped-up Schlumi and the lounge-chill out effusions of Ever, but also in the quirky synth-rock composition You, in the dark and mystical ambient opening of Our Utopie and its close successor Should We Go Home, and finally in the techno-robotic minimalism of My Tree.

Vibrant collection of synth-evocative compositions, Dust is an album that lends itself to any atmosphere and any mood, a sort of "electronic" musical clock capable of strategically scanning an individual's mood over a precise timeframe. Comparable with the very first Royksopp instrumental-ambient works like Melody A.M. and The Understanding - just to mention two well-known examples, Ellen Allien can indeed be considered one of the last archangel-saviors of the now compromised electronic firmament, fed to the hungry mouths of the harsh law of demand and supply of multi-mass.

Ellen Allien, Dust

Our Utopie - Flashy Flashy - My Tree - Sun The Rain - Should We Go Home - Ever - You - Dream - Huibuh - Schlumi.