All the Die-Hard Yello fans have been waiting for the new
master piece to arrive. As a matter of fact, they still have to
wait.
Some amongst us have been fortunate and blessed by
whatever god. They received the promo directly or through
friendly channels.
Let me first address some Yello software that surfaced
after Motion Picture.
Mounted by the Gods. This movie soundtrack revealed a
Blank that had progressed to yet another level of what
Yello is all about. Soundscapes unheard before and still
so familiar. Those who know Yello could tell the tracks
originated from Sample God Boris, even if not aware
he was behind the tracks.
The Race - Brake Light Mix. Although I don't have any
printed info on this asume it was Boris who constructed
this very interesting remix. I believed it transmitted a signal
with it's layered sounds an nearly hidden samples. A signal
that secretly informed what to expect from The Eye.
Topaz (Insect Mix). Well it sounds misty and fogged. How
else can I discribe what I hear? But it remains a track which
has the Yello Virus. An interesting theme, balancing on the
border of Mission Impossible, but showing Blank's love for
Big Beat.
And now The Eye...I'm as honest as possible.
You may spank, torment and even shave my
eyebrows off...
01: Planet Data
It starts off with a teasing reworked bell-synth and progresses
into an ode to Kraftwerk. Some of the bridges in between that
take your ears from segment to the next, are what you'd expect
on an older Kraftwerk track. Further more it's the brakes that
have a Hutter & Schneider kling (klang) to it. But don''t get me wrong.
It does have an atmosphere of a modernised YGTSYTA Excess track.
Yello is very much present in the typical percussion fills and voice
percussions.
Next to the Kraftwerk feel it could well be influenced by And One.
It gave me the needed chill...
02: Nervous
It starts of with the signal I received from Topaz and Brake light. Very
delicate flanged sounds and a tremendous transparency. It appears
to me as a link to Zebra where the rhythm is concerned.
I love vocoded voices. It reminds me of Galactica and the Cylon Centurions.
Oh... and there is that smell of Solid Pleasure. Dieter filling certain parts
like only he could. His sort of screaming voice, expressing words while
being muted on the rhythm, leaving a pulsating message for you to hear.
It contains lyrics in a definite Yello Style...
It drags me along and makes me feel empty as soon the track is over, with just
one cure.... play it again and again.
03: Don Turbulento:
Here we go. It starts of with a fragrance of Mounted by the gods. But it soon
takes you along the sunset of tropical places. Little voice percussion are layered
extreemly well in between the typical One Second percussion. Little teasing
bells, and light toms and conga. Sweeping brushes.
Dieter tells a tale, like only he can, and like only he should. Anyone else should
leave it to Dieter if they feel a need to add it to a track.
Dieter also takes us back to Solid Pleasure here. We here him talk in a way that
is so strongly related to his earlier apearances in Boris' work.
Here also the female voice has it's introduction. A voice that is too non-Yello. After
getting acquainted with Billy McKenzy, Rush Winters, Eleonore, or even the
mystical Farida, this girl/woman seems a tead bit out of place. Only not as misplaced
in tracks yet to be addressed.
This track takes me to mr. Rossy and his dog. Driving around in his car and a caravan.
A cartoon I watched while still a child. Oh sweet memories.
04: Soul on Ice.
I feel the Zebra peaking into the studio. But the Pictures with Motion have not left
yet. And track 04 is filled with what you might have heard in Brake lIght and Topaz.
Dieter as the messenger does his thing and Yello is definalty back in my room.
The melody used to transport the lyrics is at first teasing and something to get
used to, but soon it will fire the fuel in the Yello Oil Drum, and the heat is making you
want more and more, making the ice on your soul melt.
05: Junior B.
After a the intro measures the speed and tempo, the baseline takes you back to
where Baby could have taken you. The soft slide of fading strings and soft choirs mixed
with the bass and percussion does tell you're listning to Yello, but there's the female
singing again, which she should do on other projects. Her voice has to rough
harmonics. She would fit perfectly in a bar with some live band playing gits, bass and drums.
A place where no one really is listening.
Here on Junior B, she should have kept silent and just have Dieter tell us something
about Junior. The woman is trying to do her best. A bit too much. A trained ear can
hear her attempts to keep track of the emotion her voice should evoke while listening
Junior B.
06: Tiger Dust.
This one fits perfectly in what we've learned from Pocket Universe. But still it features
enough of the new tricks Boris tought himself. The smell of Brake Light crawls up your nose,
and the voices used as percussion do the trick to make it Yello and not something else.
Although I must address that I would also believe this to be a remix done by some
DJ who needed the money to get his own crap in the stores.But this would be the first
real good remix ever done by a DJ who was allowed to get his/her -dirty- hands on Yello.
07: Distant Solution
Here we go again. Motion Picture? Pocket Universe? The intro with sweeping choirs
is indeed layered with a noise that seems a mutation of the one used on Pocket
Universe. And after a long time we hear spanish guitars again. Has Chico paid
a visit to the Yello Studio's? It would be a nice surprise.
In this track we hear the female again. This time her voice has been treated enough to
be alowed a preasance as a support to Dieters language skills. South American.
But it sounds to un-Yello to me and somehow it doesn't.
Ah damn... I'll shut up ...it's good as it is. Nice and cozy. It's warm and teases my
eardrums. I'm all ready singing along...which should speak for itself.
08:Hypsters Delay.
Who have been around the mailing list for some time will already know this track
is the Loud and Clear surprise. A track I forgot to mention in my prologue.
I have a thing for unconventional use of sounds and arrangements. Therefor it was this
track that kept teasing me and I inhaled it deep into my mind, to record it to my
virtual harddrive.
The master of sound, the god of samples is really showing off.
I must add that this track is different from the Loud & Clear version. So something
to be collected and cause confusion on Kazaa... LOL.
I like this. Not a whole record full, but it's a welcome instrumental in between the rest.
09: Time Palace.
Now I know were I heard this type of voice before. It is a Dido - alike. This voice should
fit perfectly on the Faithless albums. You know... they who have one massive track that
makes you buy the album and toss it in the bin as soon as you find out that the rest
of the album has nothing to do with it.
This track, time palace, makes me flip the coin and claim something like this.
The voice of the woman is so dominant, that it almost appears that I'm listening to her
album, and that this track was remixed/produced by Boris...
Still it has something about it that will have me sing to it while driving my old Chevrolet
into a fading purple sky somewhere in the Northern parts of Holland. I even dare to claim
to hear the woman attemting to add some Billy...
10: Indigo Bay.
Oh Boris, make my heart bleed again with your drums! Make my heart race
as you layer your fairlght treated sounds over them. Take me on that journey where
your mind was when constructing something like this. Make me fill in the spaces with
my own words. Let me be the DIeter that just left the studio when you added this
to the score list of The Eye...
I say... Mounted by the Gods... Cleaned up and fixed to fit The Eye as brow or lashes.
If it were the contact lens of The Eye, the album would have been totaly different and truly Yello.
11: Unreal.
The first sounds I hear take me to David Sylvian and Holger Tsukay (forgot to spell
it correctly). But again it is the voice of the woman that takes me away from Yello.
Again I feel like listening to her album, and Dieter and Boris helped her make some
good tracks, to lift her album out of the mondain music that flood the music stores.
Oh... Dieter.... Oh Boris... What made you convince to use her voice instead
of Stina, Rush or... or... Farida? Can't you hear how hard she's trying to do
her thing? Only few can understand what Stina is singing, but this woman
is just to load and rough. Is that Loud & Clear?
12: Bougainville.
The last one. Again and Again and Again. Here we have yet another track that has
the fearless Blank and his Soneto Electronico skill. We are taken into a moving
realm of sound and very Yello like flow of percussion that have To the Sea lingering
through, with yet again the nearly missed Dieter who tells us something in French.
My French is as good as my Swahili, and I have no idea what is going on. With its'
three minutes it far too short.
Conclusion:
It is as always very important not be mislead by the name on the cover.
This album... yeah it is Yello, it is good, but it could have been better, taking in mind
that it took so long for it to surface. I understand that Boris and Dieter were involved
in a lot of aother projects, but still.
If you listen to it and you know all the earlier albums by heart, so you are as me
invected by the Yello Virus, you will agree that this album is lacking something.
Perhaps it is the complexity of sound you find on Pocket Universe and Motion
Picture, or the roughness on Stella and YGTSYTA Excess. Or even the very
experimental and pioneer like drive on Solid Pleasure and Claro Que Si.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm happy and glad to hear something again that
emerged from the Yello Studio's. Not too much artists have this rather
emotional impact on me. No too many sound engineers give me the shivers
and make the hair on my arms stand up. Next to my girl it's only Yello
that can do it and keep on doing it.
Most of all I miss the Excentric feel. That particular way how Boris can forge
something into something so distinguishable from the rest in music land.
This feel is still there, but somehow it is more faint compared to the rest
I have collected over the years. But then again... maybe I have to get used to this
just like I had to make a switch when Depeche Mode underwent a change after
Violater when Songs of Faith and Devotion made it's entrance.
I do miss Dieter in The Eye. Instead of the woman singing he should have
gotten in the mike booth and use his typical voice to tell us the tales
he has come up with while listening to Blank's soundscapes.
The pressence of the female is too dominant on The Eye. One track would
have sufficed. And if my girl wasn't such a shy butterfly she would have
done a great job, if not better.
But still. You lot out there should be heading to the stores and place
your order to lay your hands on this new Yello album. It is one
not te be left out of the collection. There's more than a handfull of tracks
that do feed the mind and still the hunger after Motion Picture.
And a second but: I just hope our two Swiss friends will not make us
wait too long again with yet another Yello album. Yes!!! I'm already
waiting for the follow up. What I said a while back has happened.
The time I had to wait to hear new Yello Magic, has increased the hunger
to such an extend that it is not stilled after listening to The Eye.
So Boris & Dieter, if you have some guys or galls on your payroll
to read what is going on in this list, I can only urge you to head back
to the studio again and compile even more goodies.
I'm in heat, I'm in need, I'm infected, I need the drug, I need the Yello
Virus to be fed, I'm love with Yello, I need my heart to be soothed,
I need...I beg... I .... I.... sigh...
Your Yello Adict Rene
