APPARAT: Walls (Shitkatapult)

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Posted on Sep 16th 2007 06:19 pm

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Apparat: Walls

APPARAT
Walls
STRIKE84
Shitkatapult 2007
13 Tracks. 59mins54secs

As the press release for Walls is prompt to point out, Sascha Ring’s profile has risen rather exponentially in the past year. Most noticeably, there was his acclaimed collaboration with Ellen Allien, Orchestra of Bubbles, a best-of-both-worlds in which Apparat’s crunchy clicks and Allien’s metropolitan house fused to form a release that blurred the lines of pop, techno, house, and even psychedelic music. As Ring noted at the time, working with Allien inspired him to open up – to a more dance-based sound, and even providing his own vocals for the first time, on the exquisitely exhausted Leave Me Alone.

Fresh off letting down his confrontational guard, Apparat here returns with a smorgasbord of different styles – from isolated minimalism to warm techno bangers. This is the sound of Ring as the renaissance techno producer. Here, Ring is either doing what you’d most or least expect of him – they’re often one and the same. Frankly, it’s a moot point for much of the album. Does it make sense for the cold vocal fricatives of Limelight to be juxtaposed directly with the techno-pop of Holdon? To Ring’s credit as a producer, it all works, and almost all of it sticks magnificently – to the brain and the low end.

Walls is an excellent representation of the Shitkatapult ethos – Apparat has thrown out the concept of a unified release, instead opting to throw a wide gamut of (solid gold) shit at the listener. Subdued ambient glitch (Birds) sits remarkably comfortably next to wintry shoegaze (Headup), and funky tech-house (Hailin’ From The Edge). Rather than grouping together specific genres, the sequencing of the album seems built to move from excitement to introspection, with the cinematic You Don’t Know Me, and the Orb-esque, chime-studded closer Like Porcelain sculpting the latter half. Anchoring the whole set are the trademark Apparat sounds – gentle string glissandi, hard-compressed kicks, and a general atmospheric airiness.

With such exciting directions under his belt, one wonders where Ring will venture to next. Walls is a sublimely all-encompassing illustration of what, at present is Apparat. Like the Clash, Ring has, by letting in a more diverse range of influences, proved that he can master them all.

4/5

Icon: arrow Apparat | Shitkatapult
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Comments (2)

2 Responses to “APPARAT: Walls (Shitkatapult)”

  1. Eleventhvolumeon 17 Sep 2007 at 11:31 am

    Great album, I’ve been playing this a lot recently.

  2. Twoism2on 17 Sep 2007 at 6:32 pm

    I’m a huge fan of the vocalist Raz Ohara especially on song #12 over and over . Apparat has slowily been climbing the IDM/electronic scene ranks and although not a household name yet he has quite the future ahead of him