Triple heavyweight LP
If there's one thing i've learned this year, it's that living through the apocalypse is nowhere near as sexy as techno would have you believe. General rule of thumb in electronic music is that the darker and more dystopic it is, the better, and besides, i mostly dislike 'happy' as an aesthetic (you can't trust someone who's always smiling). Curious, then, and likely symptomatic of the times, the reissue of Ulrich Schnauss' very hopeful sounding debut from 2001 stands up for precisely the reasons it shouldn't. Granted, this isn't exactly Saturday Night Takeaway with Ant & Dec, and Schnauss is adept at channeling a certain pensive melancholy (there's that album title for one). But Far Away Trains Passing By stands slightly apart from some of its IDM contemporaries with its charming childlike innocence, a music box of lilting melodies, space-y ambience, and a huge krautrock-inspired utopian spirit, like Neu on soma rushing through open fields. Though not part of the original tracklisting and only introduced on the 2008 CD reissue, Sunday Evening In Your Street is still the standout moment here, a technicolour symphony that's the brighter, bolder fresh-faced cousin of its dark-hearted Warp counterparts. In fact, a lot of the additional tracks, which add up to a 3LP set, may be better than the originals, and Schnauss was obviously very prolific during this period. No wonder he sounds so hopeful. There's a few Schnauss reissues out now via his own label, and they're all worth investigating, but here's your starting point. Head music to thaw icy hearts.
