PAUL ELLIS

Into the Liquid Unknown

Hypnos Binary (2001)

 

review by Bill Binkelman

Paul Ellis (he of the synthesizer group Dweller at the Threshold) has released an album on the new Hypnos "sub-label" known as Binary. His recording, Into the Liquid Unknown, features fifteen cuts, so don't expect a blow-by-blow description of the music! What I will tell you, though, is that this is a stellar effort of neo-Germanic EM that is positively KILLER music on headphones. In fact, until I donned 'phones, I couldn't begin to appreciate the dense mix, exciting layers of synths, and overall intoxicating mixture of mystery, exhilaration, and power that pours forth from this CD. It is simply a fantastic exploration into Berlin soundscapes, analog bliss, and sequencer sensuality.

What really makes this album stand out, though, is how Paul never stops evolving a piece. "Bend in the River," which opens the CD, is a good example. If your idea of German-school EM is anchored in the notion of slowly mutating synthesizers that take forever to make their intentions known, or even if you are expecting endless sequencers pounding out one repetitious series of notes after another, hang onto your helmet! This CD cooks with a variety of spices and a lot of fire and that's no lie!

The album's centerpiece is obviously the over-thirteen-minute title track - and it is a stunner! Laser zaps, synth arpeggios, spacy effects, bubbling sequencers, bassy beats - hell, it's the freakin' EM bible! And by god, it's FUN! I just love this track (and the rest of the CD too). The refrain on this cut is so infectious that I can't get enough it. And the sound of this CD - I mean, it's textbook. There is shit going on everywhere!

With so much constantly fluxing music and a technical mix this dense (in the best possible sense of the word), it's somewhat pointless to try to actually "describe" the music except in the most general terms. At times, sweeping and dramatic, and at other times propulsive and energetic, Into the Liquid Unknown is filled with so much to recommend it that I could write a review just of the title track and it would still be 500 words long! But it does feel necessary to mention a few other songs. "under the waves, a sky of water" starts slowly and quickly erupts into a near orgasmic explosion of sequenced beats and sensual synths, bringing to mind the image of racing down a twisting road in the Swiss Alps, being chased by the bad guys from Ronin (one of my favorite flicks, by the way). Juxtaposed with that frenetic pace is the next cut, "slowly rowing through ghost melodies," (has Paul been studying Tim Story's knack for cool titles?) which is one of the more evocative numbers of the CD, full of floating washes, muted synth beats, and quirky repeating melodic refrains. Another cut I like is "drifting shards from an ice floe" which is appropriately icy (very cool heavily echoed digital piano and whooshing synths). A lot of the song titles make some kind of literary allusion to water, but the only constant on the album to my ears is the excellence of the music. The brilliant EM flows from track to track like a cyber-river of musical circuitry.

Paul Ellis is da man when it comes to mapping the current terrain of neo-Germanic EM. Or, at the very least, he is the guide you want at your side if you go exploring the land of sequencers, synths, and pulsing analog soundscapes. I can't remember when I was confronted with an album that I couldn't get enough of yet was almost impossible to describe and do justice to (actually, I can - it's the last one I reviewed by L. Gaab, although his and Paul's music is world's apart). But when words fail me, I fall back on pure blathering rhapsodic rambling. In short, Into the Liquid Unknown kicks your ass, takes your name, and leaves you exhausted in the gutter wanting more - I guess that metaphor makes the CD appear to be a drug of sorts. In that case, just call me "junkie Bill."