 Venice
2004
CD
Touch
Kudos
49:13 Stewart Gott
29 July 2004 experimental electronic | This is clever stuff from Christian Fennesz, and we'd expect nothing else given the success of his previous outings, in particular the last album "Endless Summer". It may be that "Venice" is indicative of a sea change (ha ha!) in the world of radical electronica, a calm after the storm. The fury, the bombast, the wilful obscurity, the determined roar of "This Is Art!" is behind us now. In its place comes beauty, shimmering and rumbling like a half-seen mirage. Each track gleams like a miniature jewel, none so successful as the collaboration with the still-marvellous David Sylvian, who here continues his long established and rightfully revered happy knack of making the ridiculous credible,the patently pretentious profound. "The lights are dimming. The lounge is dark. The best cigarette is saved for last. We drink alone. We drink alone." Twenty years down the track people will still be playing "Venice", continuing to lap up the gorgeous wash of hazy electronica it throws at their faces, in much the same way as I listen still to "Tin Drum" today. I'm not sure whether the fact that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers rate Fennesz should be taken as much of a recommendation, but I think he's brilliant - and really by now that should be enough for you. |
