Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sofisticated and beautiful electronica from Germany., 11 Aug 2000
By A Customer
Intricate and beautiful, slick and rough, the music of Arovane is full of contradictions. The first album from this German act evokes early Autechre or Aphex Twin works, with its funky, clicky beats and ethereal melodies. But Athol Scrap has its own agenda. In turn very dreamy, on Ambelio, Failed, R/Elet or the magnificent title track, or sophisticated, on Tascel_7, Scapen Te or Amine, it never ceases to surprise and amaze. The mind of Arovane doesn't appear to apprehend complexity in the way others do. Although sounds sometimes collide violently with each other, the melodies are pure and simple in appearance, almost liquid. They rush through headphones and speakers like wild horses, but are seemingly static and calm. Athol Scrap has a heart beating inside, is human, before all. It also suggests that the first impression is not necessarily the lasting one, that, if you care to look closer, you'll find an elaborate structure, a myriad of elements, all being themselves made of even smaller parts. Arovane synchronizes his machines with his imagination, only to produce a brilliant record, fresh and exciting, in the great tradition of the German sound explorers
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Arovane - Atol Scrap, 4 Sep 2002
'Sprechen sie IDM?' is a humorous tagline which Germany based electro artist Arovane likes to make use of, and as a result you have a vague idea of what's in store for you before you've even heard anything.
However generic complacency is not on the cards here and this instantly seems the case the moment Atol Scrap starts off. Listening to this album, which keeps in tradition by bearing an unorthodox and strange name, the fetters keeping me in touch with reality are whisked away as I'm quaffed into this scintillating miasma conducted by the former breakbeat producer, Uwe Zahn. It really is that brilliant. Everything here oozes an alluring benevolence which quite frankly is hard to come by in modern entertainment.
Certain parallels can be drawn with the insularly harmonious electro of early day Autechre, but the numbers on Atol Scrap are far more sophisticated, with complex textures dominating proceedings, keeping you captive more than ever. The melody on offer here is as warm and velvety as it can possibly be, with an altruistic presence haunting you as the album's pulse invariably alters its course with gratifying effect.
Some may dismiss this as a repetition of Autechre's Amber but that for me is vulgarly off track. What you have here are compositions which in comparison are more sublime and organic in nature, with the tracks blending seamlessly even though the mood alters between one and the other : tracks such as 'Thaem Nue' have that new age creaminess while 'Tascel 7' is reminiscent of something out of Chiastic Slide (Autechre). This somehow does not contrast at all with the shimmering glide of ambient concoctions such as 'Scrapen Te' and 'Amine' while the stirring and addictive 'Revart Amx' blends both aesthetics into one.
All in all it falls short of an epic masterpiece, but definitely up there with the best releases of the genre.
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~ Arovane
~ Blue States
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