GEL-SOL - 1104 (EM:T)
February 15th, 2005 by rui
There was a hint of spring in the air this week, the first of the year for me. That’s pretty early on for those fresh yet familiar smells and sounds to begin to appear, especially up north since good stuff often happens in London for a while before arriving here.
Spring has also arrived in my hi-fi speakers in the form of gel-sol’s 1104, a refreshing, warming album (the odd air raid siren permitting) that hails from the east coast of America via Nottingham’s em:t label. Gel-sol is Andrew Reichel and 1104 is an extravagantly produced, often proggy, sometimes funny, sometimes dark and, in many ways, very old fashioned record of the future. If you want comparisons think of a richer, creamier Ulrich Schnauss with a dash of Cascade era Future Sound of London whisked together by some crazed (and bearded, of course) seventies moog-doodler.
It’s an album that moves so effortlessly from one place to another that you barely notice the segues, from the blissful opening of assemblage point (the bit that had me going all gooey about spring) to the deep power and chugging groove of ach warden ijler to the lava lamp arpeggios of schwein kuchen. The title of the latter apparently translates as ‘pork cake’ but I have to say it doesn’t really sound like either a cake or pork to me, which is probably a good thing. Where pieces do have a definite ending those endings have been given some serious thought: the pitch of ombai strait seemingly sinks down and down, but paradoxically never seems to get any lower by some auditory trick, and schwein kuchen literally grinds to a halt in the most spectacular way.
By the time I was floating away on the final track, feeling butter all the time (which probably summed up my state of mind whilst listening to this disc), I knew I had heard a fascinating, original and powerful work. Even this final track shifts and changes - the eddy currents growing and swirling until you are hurled off a waterfall as the music, and the whole album, stops dead. If I have my complaints then it’s that numby numbs, which appears half-way through the album, is a kitsch seventies flashback too far which just doesn’t fit with the rest of the pieces here and there’s nothing that quite matches the all-pervading glow of jiva, gel-sol’s contribution to the last em:t compilation which unfortunately doesn’t appear here. But these are tiny blemishes compared to what this album achieves in terms of its ambition and execution.
Genuinely innovative, refreshing, moving and fascinating electronic music that sounds like electronic music. Just like the olden days.
Yum.
Jez Wells
