SSI: E Pluribus Unum

Anyone wondering what Ralf & Florian might have gotten up to as they practiced in an effort to find some direction during the months between Kraftwerk (the second one, with the green cone, or was it the red?) and Ralf & Florian can visit with SSI for 36 minutes of slap-happy percussive analog synth and echoplex'd perpetuity. Each track remains unwaveringly loyal in its respective even-numbered delays, creating a sort of non-repeating repetition familiar to the old-timey listeners of Entropical Paradise which technically does not repeat only because it got the definition of "pattern" wrong. Yet E Pluribus Unum never exhibits the discipline or dispassion of real machine music, let alone the faux discipline and faux dispassion of everyone's favorite showroom dummies.

The single technique of E Pluribus Unum – playing clocked riffs into a sync'd delay – and nostalgic analog voicing is antithetical to drones and to the sort of backgroundability that drones usually allow or even encourage. Which means the music remains distracted with numerous but familiar pops and sawtooth grunts, sine thumps and triangle whines along with an occasional descending bass line. All these events stroll or hop to a meter typically referred to as that of a walking tune. E Pluribus Unum wants your attention even though it doesn't really need your attention or know what to do with your attention, were you to give it.

Despite the fact that the tracks are short enough (anywhere from three to seven minutes) development of some kind seems essential. But development of any kind is resolutely resisted. Trapped by the clock, this dogged klang-klinging along on all twos and fours make predictability a lock. The listener is left to jangle back and forth in what comes across as one of those jams that we know are more fun for the players – who here seem preoccupied with the loss of innocence experienced in their discovery of the ins and outs of noodling.

Track Listing
1) E Pluribus Unum I
2) E Pluribus Unum II
3) E Pluribus Unum III
4) E Pluribus Unum IV
5) E Pluribus Unum V

Added: January 28th 2007
Reviewer: Kerry Leimer
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2249
Language: english

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