Brockmann/Bargmann - Licht

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 17 / 1 / 2018

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Those of you who are into Krautrock in a big way will need no introduction to Tim Brockmann and Franz Bargmann as these two keyboard kings are founders of the Berlin rock trio, Camera. If you look at the cover of this offering you might well be thinking that this is a trip down ambient lane but not so, my friends. You will hear parts that remind you of Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk because this is a glimpse into those earlier days but this carries its own weight and density and holds its own in terms of genre framing. What you would class this I donn't have a clue because as the record develops the more diverse it seems to get. Yes, it is purely instrumental. No, it's not the same all the way through. I'm not one for writing about soundscapes and tracks that take you on a journey and such like. I'd just rather tell it like it is. This isn't going to sell in its millions but for those who do discover this more experimental outing they will have a little gem to listen to time and time again. This album defies time and era. 'Horizon' is a sublime jaunt into the new romantic era of my youth. Had they played this at the Final Solution in Nottingham where I used to go as a teenager it would have blown them away! Hidden inside are more sedate ditties such as the simple, short opener 'Aura' and 'Spektrum' which appears half way in. Camera's guitars are long forgotten here, except for some sweet smatterings of it such as on the brilliant 'Sylvester' which begins with a weird, doom laden chime and continues through with drum machine beats not too dissimilar to a Jarre mega track. 'Meer' which comes towards the end has a guitar solo to start, but that is about the crux of it. Now comes the interesting part. I said there were no singing parts in here but 'Muezzin' offers some spoken word/chant and a drum beat and instrumentation akin to OMD's 'Architecture and Morality' followed by a real drum beat and infectious droning. As the tribal 'Schatten' takes grip, it reminds me of Classix Nouveaux in their day. Each track has its own novelty and is different from the next. This album isn't going to pull up any trees in terms of sales, but 'Licht' will hopefully nevertheless attract enough interest until people find their way to it and discover just how good these two are.

Track Listing:-

1 Aura
2 Deepmind
3 Softarps
4 Horizont
5 Prisma
6 Sylvester
7 Spektrum
8 Muezzin
9 Schatten
10 Meer
11 Puls
12 Hyper

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/brockmannbargmann/
http://www.bureau-b.com/brockmann_bargmann.php

Label Links:-

http://www.bureau-b.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/bureaub/videos
https://www.facebook.com/bureaub
https://twitter.com/bureaublabel

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