Label: Nonplace Format: CD
There’s got to be something in the water in Köln – so many weirdly talented musicians who mangle Electronica, Dub and World musics into a bizarre hybrid music of sensational grooviness and quirky humour… or maybe they all just took notes at the sleeve of noted resident Holger Czukay after all. For this release, Burnt Friedman (what an apposite name he has…) is in cocktail Latin mood, swinging extremely hot on from time to time-change.
The first four tracks are culled from Nonplace EPs 1 and 2, and a rumbustious bunch they are too. With Friedman’s Disposable Rhythm Section making the funky grooves go with a twist of electronic precision and a light-hearted salsa down the aisles of any number of imaginary Southern Hemisphere bar-rooms. Vibraphones, congas and warm bass-booms plus some pretty flavoursome guitars courtesy of Josef Suchy liven up proceeding, and spread out further tendrils of happy manouverings around the dancefloor in the following four original tracks. Yep, and bass solos even crop up on “Destination Unknown”, but best of all is the Moog workout from Atom Heart on “Das Wesen Auf Der Michelstrasse”, a monster of rumbling analogue suaveness and swirly accompaniment which Progs out massively inna Jazz-Fusion stylee before its ten-minutes plus is up in a welter of clicks and burbles. Gasp.
Reading through Friedman’s sleeve notes is always a laugh, and Con Ritmo‘s are no different, making much of the recording processes and their exact duplication of the group’s sound. To quote
“We Promise
- Thrilliance And Clarity – The sound in startling BF Thrillosonic defintion.
- Ballistic Presence – Sound Projected in photographic shotgun perspective”.
- etc etc….
And there’s a whole lot more of this sort of thing, which makes a huge difference to the usual po-faced lists of technical details people are prone to puttin gon their CD booklets. Anyhow, back to the music, and “Gondel” rounds off the album in energetic fashion, with some nicely-discordant synths pushing the polished grooves off kilter among the gurglings and tootlings of virtual brass. Funny, Funky, and more than a little silly, Con Ritmo is largely enjoyable, so long as the undercurrent of lush sweetness is taken with the required dash of tequila and lime bitterness to make it all go down a little less than glibly.
-Linus Tossio-
