|
| UK
Release Date: |
24th
April 2006 |
| Track
Listing: |
1.
Baby
2. Roger
3. Bounce
4. All I Need
5. Keep The Drums Out
6. Logan
7. Best Friend
8. Fish
9. Sao Verought
10. Oggi
11. Urwald
12. Vampir Song |
|
•• Voom
Voom - Peng Peng (!K7)
•• Published:
musicOMH,
April 2006
•• Original
article:
http://www.musicomh.com/albums5/voom-voom_0406.htm
Voom
Voom is made up of Christian Prommer and Roland Appel, who
record together under their Truby Trio and Fauna Flash guises,
and Peter Kruder of Kruder & Dorfmeister fame. With
such a revered trio of talents, their collaborative efforts
are likely to be more closely scrutinised than other electronic
acts, but any pressure thankfully seems to have passed them
by.
Peng
Peng brings together four EPs released by the before unnamed
trio plus one new composition and it is the previously unreleased
Baby that forms a storming start. Chunky electro and an
energetic bassline are joined by vocodered singing that
instantly recalls Discovery-era Daft Punk,
but this is more than an exercise in eighties regurgitation
and the track forms a contemporary slap around the face
for those who have written dance off as a spent force. A
strong start is always hard to follow but the disco-edged
funk of the oddly-titled Roger erases any fears they are
one-track ponies, the synth-strings and vocoder (yes, again)
lifting it above any run-of-the-mill dance fodder.
The
standard remains high through the aptly-titled Bounce, a
squelching, rave-edged club cut, Logan with its slow-building,
buzzing bassline and bleeps, the Scissor Sister
stylings of Best Friend and acid house classic Sao Verought
which nods fairly heavily in the direction of early 808
State and Carl Craig.
Another
standout, and the pinnacle of the album, is the smooth,
deep house track Oggi. Another well-crafted bassline maintains
the momentum as subtle chords add a shimmer to proceedings
and conjure up a perfect, summery, Balearic warmth. An Arabic
chant, that may be familiar to long-term fans of The
Orb, then cuts through to further strengthen an
already excellent track.
Peng
Peng is by no means faultless, All I Need begins well with
pizzicato plucked strings but suffers from that sound of
a keyboard-pretending-to-be-a-guitar that growls through
in a way not heard since the Utah Saints
were bothering the top ten, well, if you discount the Bodyrockers
that is. There is also a slight over-reliance on vocoder
effects but these are just minor flaws.
Urwald
is ambient in style and does very little, meandering slightly
before flowing into Vampir Song, another slow track where
the influences of Jean Michel Jarre and
Air collide to surprisingly good effect.
The vocoder is wheeled out again to compliment the spaced-out
electronics but it still fails to irritate perhaps as much
as it should which is testament to an album that rewards
return visits. Strong, focussed and direct, the highlights
really do showcase dance music at its very best.
Melding
together mellow, Detroit-style techno, electro, ambient
and house of many different shades, this is a fearless album
of pure dance music with a rich, warm soul that contains
very little evidence of the producers trying to accommodate
what they think people want to hear. Not for them the compromise
of Timo Maas' or Tiefschwarz's
most recent offerings where largely superfluous attempts
are made at writing 'proper' songs with a myriad of misplaced
guest vocalists. Instead Voom Voom's confidence in their
strengths shines through on virtually every track and Peng
Peng shines as a result.
-
Ian Roullier |
