Axess – Time traveller

3 reviews for Axess – Time traveller

1. 

   Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness – 2022-11-22

   I quite like this Axel! With the comeback of Pyramid Peak, the German synthesist is breaking away from the Peak sonority and Berlin School style to go deepen into a more striking, a more techno style. But not the kind that goes Bang Bang, down all the walls. No! Its a skillful mixture of kinds where the exploratory side of complex harmonies remains the premise of its achievements.

   A sound shade passes by quickly, time to be hook by a powerful and fast circular rhythm. Time Traveller is a furious track with solid percussions and a sequencer with bass pulsations which pulse a tempo wavy and resounding of its sound impact. Some synth lines, very robot like, embellish a lively rhythm on a nervous and syncopate sequential movement and more concrete percussions. A good solid techno like the corrosive Bombay Fruit Market, which we will hear later. The Uncertainty Principle first jolts present a nonchalant approach with a stunning groovy bass and snapping Jarre kind percussions. A beautiful impulsion is subdividing, forming two movements which exploit the shade of each other, around beautiful long sinuous solos, wrapping strata and a fluid synth refrain which hangs. A very good track which hooks at the first hearing and which has something vicious and sensual. Cuba Libre is more nervous. Hesitant the rhythm is hooking to lively percussions and to a synth with hatched and bouncy lines which whirl on greedy percussions. In all this ball of energy layers float, like unconscious, creating an ambiguous tempo that a long synth complaint triturates all along Cuba Libre. Fly Away is a juicy circular techno with bumpy riffs from a bass sequence with resounding pulsations and hammering percussions. The rhythm is hyper bouncy on heavy and hypnotic beats. A purge against atony, on a wild impulsion which filters beautiful melodious segments.
   Mirror of Illusions is a superb track. Strange percussions animate a slow tempo on sound effects which amplify even more the oddness of percussions. Tempo twists a bit more on beautiful synth solos which float with the opposite of sequences along with dramatic effects and long westerns riffs which give a clandestine charm to Mirror of Illusions. Tribal voices push Pharao towards a floating ambiance. Soft the move pours towards a swaying step that haunting percussions order a sensual tempo. The sensuality takes its entire dimension with groovy bass, fine synth strata with ethereal choirs and subtle laments of desire. Lost in Space is a beautiful synth melody which curiously reminds me the soft cosmic melody of Alan Parsons on I Robot. Fluttering percussions which shake the peace of The Voyage are perfectly synchronized. A sweet pulse bass line is adding to the movement which becomes heavier, until it crosses the falling superb melodious line. Unsuspected and above all suspicion The Voyage takes forms of a great departure with superb synth melodies and a syncopated tempo with prompt percussions which modify the course of rhythms, without ever disorientating melodies. With World of Secrets we go back to a more Berlin School style with a dark intro which floats on spatial sonorities and drones from an aero spatial engine. Strange sound effects are twisting in the atmosphere, a little like a set of unsettled percussions, before taking forms on a jerked tempo with hesitant sequence. A good circular track with hatched effects that twist slowly on beautiful synths, with superb layers loops, and which dies out in the splendor of atmospheric ambiance.

   In spite of the clear tendency towards techno, I liked Time Traveller; a good way to discover the sequential universe on hammered and powerful rhythms. Axel succeeds to infiltrate the techno culture with heat and a subtlety in variances which is missing on this kind of music. If certain tracks smash tympanums, others reinvigorate them and recover them, creating the perfect harmony between two styles to the extremes that few artists manage to moderate. Axel Stupplich is one of them.

   2011. Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness

2. 

   Phil Derby / Electroambient Space – 2022-11-22

   Axel Stupplich is back with his third solo effort outside of Pyramid Peak, Time Traveller. As with his previous releases, the emphasis is on energetic electronics and rhythms.

   The title track is dance floor ready right out of the box, chugging along effusively from beginning to end. Much more relaxed is The Uncertainty Principle

3. 

   Mike Costa / USA – 2022-11-22

   I fell madly in love with track #8, like an electronic jazz full of lots of melodies, I’m also a big fan of the first light release, the last 4 minutes of echoes of eternity and the last 5:31 seconds of shadows of dawn, are just past beautiful.

   2007. Mike Costa / USA