Preview: Booka Shade ‘The Sun and the Neon Light’

Preview: Booka Shade ‘The Sun and the Neon Light’

13 March, 2008 | 1.44PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: lizwarner

Beatport was invited to a private listening session at Booka Shade’s studio in Berlin last week to preview the upcoming new album ‘The Sun & The Neon Light’.

We asked Beatport’s Ronny Krieger, one of the attendees of this special, exclusive session to give us a report on what he heard.

Here’s his sneak peek of Booka Shade’s forthcoming album.

The review of ‘The Sun & The Neon Light’

We enjoyed an early morning 2 hour listening session with Arno and Walter of Booka Shade.

It seems to me that only once in a while, the electronic music world is able to celebrate an album that is an instant classic.

Many people give this classification to Gui Boratto’s ‘Chromophobia’, Trentemöller’s ‘The Last Resort’ and Burial ‘Untrue’ from this past year.

Booka Shade’s third long player, ‘The Sun & The Neon Light’ (due on Beatport on May 26th), on which they worked for the last 15 months, is clearly going to be a top ten album of 2008 and a true instant classic.

There is almost no one else in the independent music world who’s technically able to produce an album that can keep up with Booka Shade’s production standards, and yet on this forthcoming album, they’ve raised the bar yet again.

No one will be surprised to learn that the pop factor has had a huge influence on the outlook of the album.

Depeche Mode meets neo-space disco, blues guitars meet dance beats, symphonic string orchestras clash with music software sound experiments, CSI meets Wim Wenders — it’s an album as versatile as any good music collection.

The opening track, ‘Outskirts’, featuring the Filmorchestra Babelsberg could be the opener for a new Depeche Mode album.

Epic strings layered over groovy downbeats and subtle melodies set a melancholic tone.

‘Solo City’, with vocals by Booka Shade’s Walter Merziger, sounds like a typical Martin Gore ballad with influences from Talk Talk.

Whilst the last album, ‘Movements’, was entirely produced with music software, the new album adds many live played instruments and percussion for a more organic feel.

‘Control Me’, a catchy techno pop dance tune, sounds like a typical Booka Shade anthem, with Walter singing in a neon light disco basement.

One step further to glitter disco fame with total 1980s domination can be expected from ‘Charlotte’, a song that could have been a Stock Aitken Waterman chart stormer back in their glory days.

If Wim Wenders is shooting his new movie, he should take a listen to ‘Comacapana’ — a perfect movie soundtrack with dark soundscapes, vocal samples, outer space percussion and scientific electronic glitches.

The outro, ‘You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me’, is Walter’s personal tribute to his son, born just last year.

A deep and melancholic lullaby with piano and humming voices, along breathing sounds and orchestral strings.

If that kind of description makes you run for the door, you should also know that there are some typical Booka Shade tunes for those who like to dance.

‘Planetary’, ‘Psychameleon’ and the new album version of ‘Karma Car’ all follow the path of typical Booka Shade club anthems.

The duo are also putting together an entirely separate club version of the album, complete with dance mixes of almost every album track plus some extras.

The club album will be exclusively available on Beatport for the first 4 weeks.

The original album is one of the best electronic pop albums of the new century and will find its place in collections from music lovers of all kinds.

The mix of both elements makes the album a very mature and rich work — something which becomes the strongest in Booka Shade’s career to date.
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‘Planetary / City Tales’, the first glimpse of the new album, is out and available now exclusively on Beatport. Check the player below for a listen.

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