In fact, all of Walls could be, perhaps should be, considered pop-but call it pop by any other means. Apparat has melded his genius as a sound designer with his growing songwriting talents to craft 14 songs brimming with ideas, energy, texture, light, color. They are hummable, embraceable, swimmable, possibly edible. They feel as ephemeral as clouds and as solid as the ground you’re standing on-a fitting contradiction for a record that draws equally from software and acoustic instrumentation. Maybe Walls takes its title in reference to Phil Spector’s famous «wall of sound,» because listening to the record it’s easy to imagine a massive sonic surface that first looms before you and then lets you pass through, pliant and porous.

Appropriately, for such an enfolding form, Walls ultimately isn’t only a solo joint: a number of talented artists assisted Herr Ring on the final project, from TELEFON TEL AVIV’s JOSH EUSTIS, who did the album’s final mixdown in Chicago, to MARIA HINZE, who painted the cover. (Ring met Hinze years ago when she painted an entire room of an exhibition based on APPARAT’s music.) KATHRIN PFÄNDER and LISA VERENA STEPF (Complexácord), who worked with Apparat on his Sizilium EP, play the string arrangements that give the record so much of its warmth; JÖRG WÄHNER, a colleague from APPARAT’s home town, plays drums on «Halo» and «When.» «Lime,» a leftover from Apparat’s Duplex, features KLAS YNGBORN, who also sang on that album. And another Sizilium veteran shows up to sing on four songs: the talented RAZ OHARA, whose album The Last Legend (Kitty-Yo, 2001) is surely one of the great classics of moody, post-electronic pop. His voice-smoky, pained, plaintive yet determined-makes for the perfect foil for APPARAT’s electro/organic timbres and pliant structures. APPARAT himself lends his own vocals to the other three songs with vocals, and lo and behold, he’s as impressive a singer as he is a producer, whipping up a golden falsetto (on «Arcadia») that could give THOM YORKE a run for his money.

Of his process, SASCHA RING says, «I was bored of too much programming. My studio is quite a playground these days. Lots of instruments. I’m running around like crazy when I’m inspired and I record, record and record.» Maybe Walls refers to climbing them, then? To finding an escape from routine? In the end, it really doesn’t matter what kind of metaphor you try to find in the title. Walls houses a magic box: a compact hour of music that promises to give back many times as much in pleasure, cementing Apparat’s reputation as one of the most exciting, unexpected and musically generous artists working today. (written by Philip Sherburne).

Tracklisting:
01. Not a Number
02. Hailin From the Edge (feat. Raz Ohara)
03. Useless Information
04. Limelight
05. Holdon (feat. Raz Ohara)
06. Fractales pt.1
07. Fractales pt.2
08. Birds (feat. Apparat)
09. Arcadia (feat. Apparat)
10. You Don’t Know Me
11. Headup (feat. Raz Ohara)
12. Over And Over (feat. Raz Ohara)
13. Like Porcelain

Label: Shitkatapult
Format: CD
Country: Germany
Genres: downtempo / electro pop / avant pop / newgaze / dream pop / ambient
Links: Official Website || @MySpace || @Last.FM || @Discogs
Bitrate: VBR
Download: @InfoStore [UA-IX] || @ShareUA:part1 + @ShareUA:part2 [UA-IX] || @RapidShare(v1) or @RapidShare(v2) || @IFolder(v1) or @IFolder(v2) || @Megarotic || @Nodatta
Grade: 10/10

Новый Apparat хорош (спасибо Нику за упоминание). Проект развивается и продвигается от idm/avantpop/glitch/post-rock к downtempo/electropop/newgaze. При прослушивании некоторых композиций уже вспоминается Ульрих Шнаусс (на подходе новый альбом) и прочие электрогейзеры. Уже больше вокальных вещей (и даже в авторском исполнении) и это тоже здорово. И то-то мне Telefon Tel Aviv захотелось послушать на днях – один из них работал над этим альбомом, как указано выше. Да, уважаю Сашу Ринга и его «Аппарат», в частности за красивую минорность (и в “Walls” от силы 2-3 солнечных трека). Начал подумывать о приобретении оригинального диска, когда он выйдет в свет, а произойдёт это 15-го мая.