Every once in a while a record comes along that does something a little different with a particular genre– it admittedly doesn't happen very often but when it does it makes me sit up and take notice. Such is the case here with this debut full length disc by German rhythmic industrial dance act Ahnst Anders.
This is one of those rare 'dance' CDs that doesn't make heavy use of voice samples; instead it utilizes field recordings and organic sounds (such as flowing water and movement in an echo-prone corridor for example) and artfully marries them to the electronically-sourced elements into something which is at once very accessible and yet markedly experimental in outlook. This offering, while offering some concessions to the rhythmic industrial/IDM/d'n'b scenes, also looks to other areas of the musical spectrum like ambient/dark ambient and musique concrète, while also showing a willingness to play around with parameters and conceptual frameworks at the same time.
Above all, it is a quiet album. The music, rather than being an overbearing barrage of repetitive beats, is more concerned with seeping into the consciousness subtly and with a minimum of fuss. Sounds and drones hang about in the background almost, interspersed with blips, squeaks, small percussive noises, those organic sounds mentioned above, and the occasional burst of electronic rhythm. The overall effect being to give the impression that this is more of an everyday narrative than a species of beast intended to inspire an exodus to the dancefloor. It's more like the kind of background noise encountered while walking from any suburban home: natural and incidental sounds that normally inhabit the sphere of the consciously ignored simply because they are so familiar and commonplace. Here the sounds are taken out of their natural environment and context, and so elevated into the realm of the exotic and alien, enabling us to once again to look at the world with fresh eyes and to re-acquaint ourselves with it.
The best thing about this is that it goes about accomplishing this mission with a quiet understated self-confidence and self-assurance, as if it is better to introduce the ideas gradually and surreptitiously rather than shout it from the rooftops. Even those tracks that DO feature extended beat workouts, like "Treatment" and "Diskuss," use it as a fully integrated element of the whole and not the be-all and end-all as is so often the case; that in itself marks it out for consideration.
I consider it a pleasant change to listen to an artist who attempts to inject a little difference into a genre that seems to thrive on constant formulaic reiterations, and to change the emphasis from the hallmark beat-driven physicality and metamorphosing it into a more cerebral artefact. Anders has been highly successful here in that respect, carving out something fairly unique and listenable in the process.
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