Apparat

Walls

Genre: ELECTRONIC

MP3
FLAC
2LP

Boomkat Product Review:

For his latest full-length offering, Berlin's Sascha Ring has come closer than ever to integrating traditional songwrting into modern electronic sound design. "Walls" is an album that pulls together vocals, strings and dense layers of laptop composition, propped firmly upright by a glistening array of cutting edge beats. After the introductory digital atmospherics of 'Not A Number', the first real indication of this album's direction arrives in the form of 'Hailin' From The Edge', an unexpected move into soulful hip hop electronics. Next up, 'Useful Information' and 'Limelight' show a return to more established Apparat territory. These productions point to the kind of widescreen electronica with which Ring made his name - a reminder that whatever new genres he might experiment with, there's always a strength of technique at his disposal. Recent single 'Holdon' is one of four tracks here to feature the vocals of Raz Ohara, whose presence clearly displaces Ring from his familiar Apparat comfort zone. This track in particular marks a new, more streamlined approach to beat programming, which comes across as comparatively organic in this instance. As the album develops the scale seems to swell : there's the post-rock/hip hop crossover 'Arcadia', and later on comes 'Headup', which sounds like a shift into miniature stadium rock, complete with swathes of laptop textures only serving to accentuate the epic proportions of this ambitious album.

MP3 Release (13)