Orchestra of Bubbles

Are you ready? Two of the brightest stars in the dance universe are about to collide, the gamma-ray burst is already being felt in the future: Ellen Allien and Apparat are releasing a CD together. Allien, the head of the BPitch Control aesthetic steamroller, teams with Apparat, partner in the Shitkatapult brand empire to develop a remarkable sonic salvo. Orchestra of Bubbles is what it's called, and it might be the road-trip CD of the year -- 11 tracks of the most delightful, uplifting electronic music you have ever heard. "Turbo Dreams" introduces you to the partnership with guitar licks and metronomic precision. In "Way Out," Allien's vocals coast atop muted acid breakdowns. On "Retina," contrabasso parries with string pulses. Circuitry splits open, beautifully as a time-lapse tulip, on "Jet." "Floating Points" levitates the ears towards the second movement in the orchestra where "Under" begins the dubstep-style transformation. "Edison" is a kind of Asian filament-funk. "Leave Me Alone" finds Apparat on vocals, crooning in a shoegaze style. "Do Not Break" will give you the chills - a manifesto of neu beat-scratching technique and syncopated splendor, while "Metric" is grime with a string section. And Ellen's final vocal contribution, "Bubbles," is a perfectly lovely epilogue. The orchestra is warming, draw the bubble bath. Are you ready? Sure you are.