The second in Die Stadt's ambitious reissue project covering 18 of Tietchens' early releases, 1980's Biotop sees the artist venturing further into the quirky pop idiom that his debut Adventures in Soundonly hinted at. Each track is a rich, two-minute exercise in Tietchens'inimitable melodic style, filtered through vintage synths and drummachines, receiving their own portraits in the liner notes. Tietchenshas also imagined a troupe of synth-wielding goofs as his backing band(Das Zeitzeichenorchester?"the time-signal orchestra"), all with namesthat are anagrams of the composer's, including Stu 'The Cute' Sins.This brand of humor helps to foreground the music inside, which, forall its melodicism, comes with a noticeable sense of detachment. Whilesimilar in mood to the surreal, coldly cinematic electropop of hiscontemporaries, Der Plan, and modern-day wunderkind Felix Kubin,Tietchens' Biotop pushes the pop further into space, weavingheady, claustrophobic atmospherics in and out of each robotic beat anddated synth whirl. This music does show its age, but it almost works in favor of the strange environment conjured. Even at its most bouncy or sweet, Biotopkeeps a bizarre, grainy distance, invoking the kind of antique futurismgroups like Trans Am wish they had it in them to create. Tietchens hassaid that, at the time, he was intentionally writing songs with no basslines, in order to erase any commercial potential the record mighthave. Listening today, however, I'm thinking his plan may havebackfired as many of these songs approach what I'd imagine radiojingles of the future to sound like. Coincidentally it was Tiechens'mentor Okko Bekker who said that the sparse and concise nature of thesesongs reminded him of radio time-signals, kind of like old-fashionedstation-IDs. For such a (relatively) straight-forward piece of work, Biotopstrikes me, ironically, as lacking the personality that makes many ofTietchens' more inaccessible, recent releases stand above the rest.That said, the album is a fascinating, elusive little creation,valuable apart from its status as a document of the brilliantmusician's formative years. Read More
