LEVEL PI - "Electronic Sheep" (2008)
From Aural Innovations May 2009 update
Level Pi is Dane Uwe Cramer. There are six lengthy pieces here that pretty much
stay in the mode of later Tangerine Dream and other such electronic new-age
composers. "String Theorie" starts off with an ambient vibe that somewhat
recalls Floyd's extended "Shine On" intro, goes into a sequencer phase
and lays on some nice lush keyboard waves, later there's live-sounding drums
but then the keys...the whole key really becomes rather bland. Maybe too "prog"-sounding
for a lot of A-I's psyche/space readership. "S.E.T.I." has some freaky
synth washes, a pretty cool track, he seems to get a decent variety of tones.
"Elfenstaub" begins with some nice '70's style tone-generations, then
a bass-sequence rhythm which sounds later Kraftwerk-ish...it's mechanical but
not in the greatest way...Kraftwerk had a fresh sound, some really sweet melodies
and happy robot voices (but then they could be insufferably bland too!)...then
the keyboard starts up with this new lead-rhythm, and I'm careful about throwing
around the word "dated-sounding", but I think it fits here...at some
point an "aaahhhh" choral sample kicked in. "Dishwasher"
starts with some interesting rhythmic sampling (see title), throws in some spaced-out
funky wah-guitar, continued pulses, a pretty dense melange of rhythms and fx.
"Traumphase" is...just too familiar sounding, a benevolently-spacey
cliched new-age/electro-ballad. "Theta Null" closes the album, a 16-minuter
that begins a bit like the first track, then heads off into a pretty far-out
kinda "Phaedra"-type sequence, then live drums...still, it builds
like it's gonna get exciting but doesn't quite reach beyond this boring, proggy
space-limbo.
Reviewed by Chuck
Check out the band web site at: http://www.level-pi.de