Hailed by all the positive criticism (both press and public) on the occasion of the release of his first album “Chromophobia”, Gui Boratto is back in 2009, still on the Kompakt label with a new set of aces, substantially different from a previous record, but still on the high level, as we can expect from this São Paulo music engineering facility. Minimal techno still dominates the scene here, Gui Boratto has a bit of chill pop in his music, and the titles overall are more melodic. A set of contrasts, alternating cold techno and electro tracks, addition of more pop-sounding vintage feel — this is truly appreciated. In short, this album contains a plenty of little surprises ... and no doubt will disappoint some of fans of for "easy pop" moods, but try to listen to it a few more times and it’ll grow on you. Anyway, even though a couple tracks seem a little redundant (it’s a typical for almost all electronic albums), globally "Take My Breath Away" listens with real pleasure.

a-ha released a fantastic new album, very 80s-like (yet not retro). Melodies are brilliant and effective, they hit you immediately and you’re suddenly a slave for jumpy pop piano sequences. The first drawback that you see instantly is the number of tracks on a CD — only 10. A bit short for an album, isn’t it? I recall the original Jackson’s Thriller originally included only 9, but was from the LP age and certainly lasted longer than this one ... It is therefore difficult to assess. It is a bad point to start, but fortunately with a-ha, we are reassured by the quality of all the songs is exceptional. Another bad point is the sound that rings back on some titles, not because the synths have a dated sound but because the sound is perfect, synthetically perfect. Indeed, the bandstand sounds very successful and well-produced, it's melodic, pretty, well made, simple, classy, in a way that only a-ha can do.

Depeche Mode are "Walking a thin white line between love and hate ..." since Exciter and will do so probably forever now, and this long play is not an exception, I accept it with mixed feelings. I began my review intentionally with a lyrics excerpt from the song "Come Back", since after four years of silence Depeche Mode are back again on everyone's lips. After the disappointing for me personally album "Exciter", there was a slight positive trend with "Playing The Angel" (not TOO positive, though). "Sounds Of The Universe" not only confirmed but developed and strengthened this upward trend, in a way, but it also showed weak points of Depeche Mode. Everything stands on Martin’s rare enthusiasm and Dave’s permanent egoism and selfishness. I think Dave is pretty worthless as a songwriter, he is pretty boring and the decision to allow him into songwriting for DM was a dangerous idea, later on he’ll demand even more and might very well ruin it all. Now that I have listened to all the songs many many times, I can easily say that “Jezebel” is the best song on the album, just like “Damaged People” was the best on the previous one. They are sung by Martin, if somebody doesn’t know. Some songs like “In Chains” or “Oh Well” are a pure nonsense – what are they doing on a DM record? Complete mystery to me, they are so shallow. Anyway, this record is very good, one of the best records of 2009 in my opinion. But I would have never fallen in love with the band if instead of Songs Of Faith & Devotion back in 1993 they had released something like this.

What they always fail to cover in all the reviews: You And Me Against The World was the start of a new era for Apoptygma Berzerk. They finished their drift from the lands of EBM to radio friendly rock performed by heavily maked-up goths or something. And this time a number of good songs impresses, it’s really an album also united by a common theme, not just a collection of songs that could meet anywhere. Having a solid conceptual album is such a luxury for a modern rock band. What they kept from the old Apoptygma, is the electronic playfulness, in a form it was used on the albums Harmonizer and Welcome To Earth. The benefit now is a crisp, much more organic sound. And their concerts is a different story, they look and sound so solid, so dynamic! I know many people who were into APB 10 years old now simply reject the band for its transformation, and they will find this a bit difficult to accept, but to me it seems pretty clear that Rocket Science is beautifully glorious album, a great demonstration of today’s incredibly powerful synth-rock scene presented with allusions to the typical disco sound of something like Giorgio Moroder. Everything here is coherent and harmonious. The album is a very sophisticated blend of rock, electronics, politics and even fashion (look for it outside the sound, yet still) and just sets the mood! Great!

The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman is a work of comedy art blended together with brilliant music from these Californian jokers. It’s actually a radio play commissioned by Swedish Radio, the basic plot of which is that Ingmar Bergman, a well-known Swedish film director, is transported to Hollywood where the studio tries to seduce him into staying and working for the Hollywood capitalists. For Bergman, the enticement is having much larger budgets for his films. But caring for him in a Hollywood sense is a torture. After an attempt to live by Hollywood rules he wants to escape and finally does so. The work is purely brilliant, both musically and script-wise. It made me laugh in several places, especially when a “sensible” limo driver tries to talk to herr Bergman, making an excuse he opened a car window and now realized that Bergman might have used to really frigid air. And when that driver makes him a compliment about Bergman’s films – “they’ve got a foreign flair”. Honestly, what he says and how he says it, it’s beyond compare, just brilliant. I love Sparks for their experimental blockbuster records, like Lil’ Beethoven and Hello Young Lovers, but this time it’s a different kind of love, I almost can see how they were sitting in the studio making up all those dialogs and laughing all the time, they are great guys, I appreciate the atmosphere that they created on this record. And not being a huge fan of musicals as a genre, this time I’m all yours, guys!

This Kettel’s record has refreshed his own record set back in 2004 with Volleyed Iron. It immediately suggests a fundamentally different approach, other than Myam James Part 1 (which was also very very good by all means!). Kettel here offers piano pieces, almost barenaked, accompanied by just a few household ambient noises, bird songs, and some electronic bleeps. This album looks so more acoustic in a good way than the others. The fact that Kettel has chosen Benn Jordan (the man behind The Flashbulb) as a producer has taken its toll. Anyway, we can find here on Myam James Part 2 all the ingredients that make the current electronic sound of Holland: well developed complex melodies, sounds inherited from the acid, mind-blowing ambient. But probably the most important thing is the desire for change, and to it we owe the pleasure. The compositions on the piano are so enjoyable that they become very difficult to miss. In fact, here we discover this fellow’s new layer of talents – when he sits behind a piano. All the IDM bits are still there and dynamic drive that we used to on his previous records is still in place. As a result, the album is a completely opposite term to “boring”, and is mostly an album successful in any way you look at it.

Перестаньте пребывать в иллюзии, маэстро, Ваши последние работы - гроша ломаного не стоят. Пара треков с Вашего последнего диска, достойных внимания - это Vintage и OK Do It Fast, да и то я бы не подумал, что они Ваши. Вы давно продались в угоду концертам в честь основания профсоюза Солидарность, давно променяли талант на бабло за рекламную музыку к Bang & Olufsen, так что ничего толкового от Вас уже никто не ждёт. Вы - человек из 70-ых. Как только Вы сменили аналоговый звук на цифровой на Ле Шам Манэтикь, Вы стали стремительно скучнеть. Единственное, что Вам сейчас может дать рестарт, так это выпуск нового аналогового альбома Oxygéne 14-20, после чего не терять времени и углубиться в дальнейшие аналоговые работы, Ваше место там. Не стремитесь быть похожим на какого-нибудь Dj Dado, Вы выглядите глупо в этой роли — в то время когда эти люди ходили пешком под стол, под Вашу музыку человечество уже мечтало о великом. И перестаньте модниться, Ваша ретро-футуристичность гораздо фундаментальнее любой моды. А то превратитесь в Дидье Маруани, а это уже совсем клиника.

This album took a while to grow on me, and having listened to it for a good week on repeat, it became tremendously appealing. In my opinion, it’s his second best record after You’re The Quarry, but then I’m conservative and I feel for old stuff sometimes more than reasonable. If so, you can call this one his best work so far. Anyhow, this is Morrissey’s another standout. Morrissey is being in a great shape, energetically sarcastic as never before. Lyrics like “It’s not your birthday anymore” and “You were good in your time” are probably close to the edge, one more step and he’s too much, but he knows his limits and never pushes them. Morrissey has matured in his songwriting skills well enough to be as precise and effective as it takes to cause your brain to start itching. These songs may be not as catchy as Alma Matters or some tunes from You Are The Quarry, but they are tighter, easier produced yet sounding heavier, with more rock feeling in them. When I think about it, my own grumpiness quite well falls into a person (or the ego, maybe?) that he sings his songs from, that sarcastic sentimental guy. Sad if so. And great album anyway.

Very simplistic by its nature, this soundtrack was one of the great finding for me in 2009. Never promoted on a large scale like Dunckel’s last Darkel album, it surely is a niche record only interested to certain Air fans. Yet. This is a pure author’s record, this is where Air sounds tends to these days, very simple, playful, over-sweetened, very keyboardish. If you compare latest Air album to Kelly Watch The Stars era, it’s a disaster. But Cyprien puts everything back in place, it shows how Air will sound in a couple more years and kills any expectations that the band will become more complicated, no, no way. But hey, I already said that Cyprien is a great record, and it really is, if you take it easy. It’s a shame that the movie Cyprien was never translated in any language and only available in its original French. I watched just a few moments of it and I need to admit that the film is a brilliant French comedy and Dunckel’s music falls perfectly into it. Especially softer piano solo ones and nerdish version of the title track. Ok, at least we know that when Air splits up (and after their Love 2 effort I put my bet that it’ll happen sooner rather than later), there’ll be at least one worthwhile half to remain.

For quite a long time I didn’t care about music that was used in Monty Python's Flying Circus series. Of course, I knew they were using a bunch of third-party music, I knew Sousa’s march but nothing besides that. Now, De Wolfe presented us all with a brilliant compilation of library music that every Python fan knows by heart but doesn’t know who’s the author. None of the tracks here would have any “pop” value, this is a fan release only, and it might have some interest for library music collectors as among the writers here are such personas as Peter Reno, Keith Papworth and Reg Tisley. A must-have item in a library of anyone who can tell a difference between a dead parrot and the one missing for fjords.