Dust

VINYL FORMAT. Double gatefold vinyl version! Ellen Allien, owner of the BPitch Control label and Fairy Queen of Berlin's more delicately-woven rave music, has been tinkering with the sound of the city for over a decade now. What has remained from all these years - packed with great releases, highly original remixes and exploratory mix CDs - are her monolithic albums, each the condensed result of a completely different creative phase. It already seems an eternity since Ellen Allien last remodeled her own sound with the sharp-edged diamond Sool in 2008 - a release which opened the gates to a far-off parallel world where minimalist artifacts float through the room with a cool elegance and distanced allure. With Dust, Ellen removes the sense of remoteness entirely, and a warm immediacy takes center. On "My Tree" your eyes will be dazzled by the light shining through a canopy of leaves. And while the bleeps prance on by, the introduction of the clarinet, as a classical element, ensures that some order presides over all the endlessness behind the clouds. "Huibuh" feeds off a similar feeling, a perfectly tranquil synth-pop song which pays tribute to the most chilled of all Sunday afternoons. Melodic, sexy and self-content. On "Ever" the plucked synths and glockenspiels float over an unobtrusive beat framework. And despite their rich variety, these sounds are blended into a funky groove of life-affirming bliss. "Dream" makes a more twisted entrance where synths scale the walls while the trailing female vocals float through unconscious depths. Ellen prefers to sing a duet with her pitched-down alter ego under the pleasant glare of the "Flashy Flashy" disco lights - a house track that trots along with a light and breezy gait. "Our Utopie" is the soundtrack to a sunrise with sounds that ring and reverberate through the air. Beneath the old school analog synth of "Schlumi" is a kick drum and a rave siren that winds its way up to the surface until the walls start to ripple and there are no more right angles in sight. Then there's "You," a completely unexpected indie-pop track with a beguiling guitar loop like something halfway between Zoot Woman and Phoenix, with a Joy Division bass line, and then Ellen's bright voice, singing with a cool fragility. "Sun The Rain" is the second synth-pop song on Dust, and "Should We Go Home" thrills with hushed voices, involuntary rushes of goosebumps and a few melodic fragments, arranged here as ambient phase shifts pile on top of one another. What now? You'd better dust yourself off. It's time to start all over again.