Ellen Allien - "Sool"

Ellen Allien - Its (Bpitch Control 2008)

Ellen Allien - Sool / Bpitch Control

Though it's common knowledge in the music world that "big" releases crop up on opposite ends of the calendar year (February-April and September-November, respectively), May of 2008 will go down as a significant month for the electronica community. A host of big names are releasing material, and though Booka Shade may beg to differ, Ellen Fraatz stands atop the techno pile as arguably its guiding light and most recognizable face. After Justice, anyway.

What was it about her that had the masses flocking to Berlinette in 2003? Was it the Warp-style IDM beats? Was it Allien's vocal approach, which brought robotic recitation to an all-time low on the cheesiness scale? Was it that it felt like an album rather than a collection of singles? Or was it just the cutesy artwork that misled so many into believing it might be a wayward German indie-pop album? Whatever it was, Allien attracted an unorthodox audience of newfound electroheads that was watching closely when Thrills appeared in 2005. Allien's sublime blend of minimal Berlin, airy trip-hop and streamlined glitch caught fire with another new wave of crowds, but it was her collaboration with Apparat for 2006's Orchestra of Bubbles that sealed the deal. Even when she wasn't in complete control of the soundsystem's thump, her touch was evident (and proof can be found on Apparat's more maximal Walls last year). It was cruel that Orchestra of Bubbles sat in the woodlands while The Knife emerged from the vulpine forests to take all the electro glory come year's end.

Of course, year-end lists are worthless when the calendar year changes and you're only as good as what you've done lately. While kids slowly forget how to spell "Dreijer," Allien's kept sharp through a Fabric mix and Bpitch label compilation Boogybites Vol. 4, but Sool is the true follow-up fans have been waiting for. A decade on from the formation of her label and half a decade on from her worldwide breakthrough, where do we stand?

Fair warning first: This is not exactly Allien's work, just as Berlinette had SmashTV as a silent partner. Riding shotgun for Sool is fellow Berlinette Antye Greie aka AGF, whose production credits on this album bolster an impressive career that's also included work with Vladislav Delay and Craig Armstrong. By manning (womaning?) the boards, AGF has brought out a very different, dramatically darker side that Allien has been hinting at in her post-Orchestra of Bubbles material. No longer the doe-eyed romantic passionate about the straßen of Berlin, Sool screams barebones Berlin microsound. Maybe it was that she did most of the recording for this album during the winter.

Or maybe, as Philip Shelburne recently alluded to, Greie was simply an innocent accomplice caught up in the great sea change of a New Direction for a new Ellen Allien tired of talking the techno-pop talk and ready again to walk the minimal walk. Either way, Sool is fascinating more for what it suggests than for what it delivers outright. As she says in press releases, Sool is "a phantasm, a creation, which reflects the album's atmosphere, and also my person." A fitting description that, because this album lacks form or solid substance on several occasions. It is liquid, it is gas, it is plasma. Even when the 4/4 thump is there, it can feel like it's not.

The secret to this ghostly façade is that the album growls quietly, simmering and sizzling all over the low end. "MM" is a good example to use for this, where hardly anything seems to be happening until you look below the surface and discover a track brimming with sounds moving and changing and shifting and shaping the most receded hairs of your eardrums. Like most of the rest of the album, the first listen is like looking at an ant colony from ten feet; repeated listens are like looking at an ant colony from ten inches.

There are a few exceptions, but comparatively they barely bubble with the showmanship of an orchestra. "Frieda" will be one you may hear for its pop sensibilities, breathy vocals and high chimes lending a feminine familiarity that will bring comfort to those frightened by the chilly android of "Caress." Another standout is the near-beatbox of "Bim," occupying a liminal space somewhere between hallmark minimalism and breathy sex-pop. It's both revoltingly mechanical and alluringly human. Yes, there is life on Sool. It's everywhere. You just have to keep looking.

In our aforementioned Apparat review last year, Michael called Walls refreshing because of "how much it does not sound like the current Berlin scene (or at least my assumption of it). It’s overtly melodic, emotional and sentimental." The irony is that Berlin has been trying desperately to burn that bridge for years now. Everybody - Allien included - has spent albums referencing the ambiguously feared "minimal" tag without actually being minimal. Sool represents an about-face, and maybe it's one of the most fascinating electronic records of the year partly because of how much it does sound like the current Berlin scene (or at least, Michael's assumption of it). Maybe it will scare off those who expected something more explicit - I was unsure the first few times I listened too - but if you sit with Sool long enough, the sketches, drawing and adhering that went into this record emerge in full bloom... And instead of being alienated, you'll be Allienated. Subtle, mysterious, minimal: Sool has everything. You just have to keep looking past the preconceptions full of brightly lit crosses to find it all.