CDR 4-Panel Digipack

Reviews:

voxempirea.com [06/2013]

The concise biography available about the German one-man-project [basementgrrr] describes the interpreter Ralf as a lone alchemist committed to experimentation of new convergences between the intricacy of electronic/IDM /industrial/noise and the ambient's atmospheric suspensions, a peculiarity that the artist transforms into a kind of sound which only functions are to entertain, mesmerize, and create scenarios that abducted the imagination of the listener. Artificial trajectories alternately linear but together unforeseeable with a sense of structural modification of reality, are the first effects arising from the imagination of the protagonist, active from 2011 with the excellent "Skull", a digital-self-produced EP of seven tracks containing also "Until I Am Rotten", the cornerstone of the entire construction. The tactics employed by [basementgrrr] in that release included an electronic musicality exclusively instrumental, with total absence of vocals, within which prevailed low hatching of drum-programming as a supporting base followed by the evocative melodies processed by the key's platform: we can notice the same coordinates also within the waited "Arrival/Departure", the official debut-album issued in 2013 by the famous Raumklang Music, an home records of Rottenburg founded in 2003 as sub-label of Format Noise, as well as publisher of some important albums of projects as Pandora's Black Book, Exosphere, Dirk Geiger, Tapage and Klangstabil. Worthy of note is also the participation of [basementgrrr] to a significant compilation published in 2012 again by the same Raumklang Music entitled "Snowflakes III", by which the musician showed his style with a particularly catchy track, "Room 173", the same song included in two different versions in the album "Arrival/Departure" now analyzed by Vox Empirea: the first one of them, the original version, atmospherically opens the list of nine episodes by slow keys evaporations, feminine phrasing in the background and, more later, by ethereal pads and icy downtempo percussive asymmetries. "24 Hours Sleepless In New York City" begins proposing a mixture of urban voices-noises unitedly with the hypnotic minimal downtempo scans of the drum-programming and the futuristic synth's insertions. The introductory segment of the following "Gothenburg" looks like an extended ambient-minded period that seems immobilize all the space around the listener, until the arrival of the materiality expressed by a robotic rhythmic implant which cadences, at first at the liquefied state, thicken progressively their timbers, as the perfect completion of the slow-pulsing reticulum mantled by a dense, beautiful key wrapping, all this in a track which I consider as one of the most seductive of the album. "Down Brixton Road With Dub In My Head" starts its process exhaling inorganic dissonances syllabized by a thin electro-percussive midtempo alphabet which, after a radical transformation, expands grainy bpm's surrounded by multi-effects, vocal samples and by the harsh breaths of synths. Recalls of techno-trance culture now for the next song, "Subhuman Station", rhythmically settled up on slim midtempo beats on which it floods the misty corrosion actived by the keys and by the complicated plots of programming, while in "Transit" we hear initially and for a long time a cloud of pulses and complex electronic trajectories, followed by a development in which it predominates the centrality of the rhythm machine and the cold industrial-oriented beats chased by impure tampering and key's intangibility. The ambient-electronics extensions that form the configuration of "Illuminated Skylines" initiate an avantgarde sound particularly danceable using the fluid current by drum-programming and combining harmoniously celestial synth notes with reverberated breaths played by instruments. The second edition of "Room 173" is now on -Behind Closed Doors- format by the rhythmic-noise/IDM/ambient project called Mind.Divided, who rewritten the track's core exposing it to a caustic percussive industrial automation and to dark echoes that transfigure the original sonic's shape making it even more intense and penetrating. Victor Popescu alias Brazda Lui Novac, Romanian musician devoted to the electro/IDM genre, concludes the album's course beautifully remixing the body of "Gothenburg" by futuristic injections of ambient, rarefied noises and by an increasing key's spurt supported by the geometric drum-sequencing. "Arrival/Departure" is a full-lenght which, without subverting the principles of the ultra-alternative music to which he belongs, interprets beautifully the rules that characterize it, being able to set up very sophisticated melodies of unalterable solidity. [basementgrrr] is an artist that will amaze a big multitude of electro conoisseurs: they will be immediately conquered and they will show their complete admiration and their deep respect. The technologic melodism of which is full the tracklist possess the same flacial charm of an ice sculpture, lumping together into a single modulus the disembodiment of the keys fluctuations and the concreteness of the percussive planning, building with them sounds especially "mental", a great number of formulations able to insinuate them into the listener reaching the vibrations of unconscious, the area in which they reside the most intense sensations. I wish [basementgrrr] and his album an eternal resonance.

woundsoftheearth.blogspot.de [05/2013]

aliens.sk [04/2013]

The introducing promo which notified this release, evoked that in Raumklang Music will sparkle again and after receiving this one man project confirmed my expectation. Project which is collecting from the beginning variegated and imaginative mixture of down tempo electronic which has a very strong site of creativity. Songs on this album are nicely unpacking and every one is telling a story that will stick at you from the first minutes. Many beautiful atmospheres in which are waving pervasive arpeggios and strong bass lines, are a serious jump into a abyss of moods and ear flattering tones for which are no shortage. It has many movie nooks of melody lines and metal constructions. They know where to appear and disappear at the right time. Album is nicely decomposed, sometimes it will push more at you, other time less. By listening you will be blown over by decent dose of feelings and that means that this music has a soul. Because the original creation has seven songs and the last two ones are remixes, its for me personally too little, since im returning to this release often and would not wish to destroy the cd by permanently listing to it. So im awaiting new material soon because it deserves a continuation.

indierockmag.com [03/2013]

Après quelques mois de relâche, le label IDM de Dirk Geiger reprend les choses où les dernières sorties d’Acnode ou Reform-1 les avaient laissées.

Ce premier long-format de l’Allemand [Basementgrrr] symbolise en effet la direction privilégiée par Raumklang Music depuis son émancipation de l’ombre des compères/concurrents de Tympanik Audio, album cyberpunk hautement cinématique dont l’emphase des beats électro-indus et des mélodies de synthés stellaires contraste efficacement avec une certaine finesse dans les textures, et les atmosphères plus mélancoliques (Gothenburg) ou délétères (Room 173, Transit) qui s’en dégagent.

Ainsi, difficile de faire la fine bouche devant les accents dubstep un peu trop appuyés de Down Brixton Road With Dub In My Head ou l’insistance binaire de Subhuman Station et de son rouleau-compresseur rythmique aux confins de la techno industrielle et de la drum’n’bass, tant le beatmaking bien que percutant apparaît finalement secondaire au regard des fumerolles soufrées qui suent insidieusement de la plupart de ces instrumentaux, plus implosifs qu’expansifs dans la droite lignée de l’EP Skull de 2011 sans l’aspect martial voire belliqueux qui anime ce dernier.

Tout juste regrettera-t-on l’hommage trance old school pas très subtil des synthés rythmiques d’Iluminated Skylines aux sonorités un peu datées, faux pas rattrapé par une paire de remixes bien menés, lyrisme inquiétant sur fond de beats à fragmentation pour Mind.Divided, puis épopée caoutchouteuse pour le Roumain Brazda Lui Novac remarqué il y a deux ans sur le même label pour son très bon Dizzy à la croisée de Subheim et d’Access To Arasaka.

adnoiseam.net[03/2013]

There's more than meets the ear on this (I believe) second album and first CD by the German act Basementgrrr (and by the way, no, I don't think that these final three "r" have anything to do with Igorrr). It starts and stays for a long time a rather nice, modest album of downtempo electronica of the kind we have grown to expect from Raumklang (think early Displacer or some Hymen releases), then surprises with a garage track, a couple of techno tunes and a bass-driven conclusion. There're definitely a departure and an arrival here, and though the whole thing floats under the guise of a very melancholic, introvert atmosphere, Basementgrrr's ears seem to be open to more than only soft electronica.

soundsbehindthecorner.org [01/2014]

Un’attesa in downtempo, voci ovattate ed una struttura subito melodica dal profondo talento ambient: con “Room 173” è subito chiaro che per il debutto in Raumklang, [basementgrrr] decide di percorrere la strada della composizione introspettiva, la più moderna espressione di conciliazione neoclassica con i dettami dell’Intelligence.

Linee space-oriented, texture di pianoforte sparse tra glitch dal buon ritmo oscurate da nubi minacciose create tramite synth, una piattaforma costruita su landscape notturni ed urbani che prosegue la sua iniziale inclinazione alla musica immaginifica successiva al primo vero passo produttivo, un Ep (“Skull”) rilasciato nel 2011 in cui incontrare già tutta la fase embrionale del musicista tedesco ora chiamato alla prova di maturità acquisita con “Arrival/Departure”.

La ritmica delle track è sinuosa e trattenuta su moti rallentati, ogni singola nota ha un valore creativo: drum’n’bass a basso impatto e linee miscelate, incursive, sono padrone del suono, “24 Hours Sleepless in NYC” cresce lentamente nella sua essenza cosmica, la riflessione ideale nel saggiare le potenziali visioni notturne durante un’attesa senza fine, sempre in movimento, con tempi mediati ma dalla costante evoluzione.

Sulla stessa frequenza, in accelerazione, “Transit”, ritmica cardiaca, dispersione frantumata tra dinamiche ora dance.

“Down Brixton Road With Dub In My Head” è il pensiero che prende forma tra la folla, estraniato nella presenza: nasce una cadenza dub tra il vociferare di gente vitale, cresce leggera come il pensiero libero di esistere e si crea una bolla mentale di aumentato spessore sonoro, sempre più ovattata, mentale.

Nel finale Brazda Lui Novac illumina “Gothenburg” descrivendo un complesso soundscape diviso tra intrusioni etniche percussive ed oscurità digitali, creando una trance crescente verso stadi coscienti del suono; il musicista rumeno conclude con il suo remix un album compresso tra intimismi leziosi, romantici, e squilibri tecnologici.

La giusta mediazione è ancora una volta il suono in grado di ammansire la frenesia del vivere con il velo della meditazione inconscia, ancora una volta l’Intelligence Music diventa lo stimolo per creare atmosfere ed immagini didascaliche, descrizioni filtrate di umanità solitarie.

1. Room173

2. 24hours sleepless in New York City

3. Gothenburg

4. Down Brixton Road with Dub in my Head

5. Subhuman Station

6. Transit

7. Illuminated Skylines

8. Room173 (behind closed doors remix by mind.divided)

9. Gothenburg (brazda lui novac remix)

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