Artists: Burnt Friedman
Title: ep2
Cat.No.: non03
Format: CD
Complete Tracklisting:
01. Los Corralero
02. Demolition Derby
03. Octrahedal Spherical Caffufle
04. Platin Tundra
05. Escape The Night
06. Destination Unknown
07. Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse
08. Gondel
Reviews:
"Light years ahead of the lazy appropriation and quantized rhythmic tedium that dominates computer based music in general, this is witty, positive and intelligent stuff. Don't file under Trip-Hop." (Gary Steel 2001)
"... musical cross fertilisation knows no boundaries, taking in Latin, Samba, Jazz, Dub and Tronica." (Wax 2000)
"This is Lounge music deconstructed by manic phunk preachers." (Muzik 2000)
"A bit like Magma on Prozac..." (The Wire 2000)
"(...) The remarkably 'live' feel developed on the Flanger/Nu Dub records continues here - if anything developed further - and I can only assume that its all produced by Friedman again, although a Josef Suchy is listed contributing electric guitar - very nice it is too, slide guitar á là Gary Lucas drifting around the intricate rhythm patterns. There's a distinctively Latin-Jazz feel to much of the record, but again, there's something different about it. Some of the rhythmic twists are a little too agile, or rather feel like they're occurring at some infinitely complex microprocessor-based level. There's a sheen of simulacra about the whole thing, which is actually very attractive, not least because it's very funky and seems to be audibly winking at you the whole time. It's incredibly well-crafted, feeling for all the world like some über competent electro-jazz-latin-dub live band he's got locked up in his Cologne studio, but somehow you know it's not. Ultimately it doesn't matter, because it's so darn good. So, Nonplace is really Non-live. This is live music, which isn't live. Or maybe it is. Only Friedmann and Atom Heart know and they're not telling." (review by Dan Hill)
"There's got to be something in the water in Köln - so many weirdly talented musicians who mangle Electronica, Dub and World musics into a bizarre hybrid music of sensational grooviness and quirky humour ... or maybe they all just took notes at the sleeve of noted resident Holger Czukay after all. For this release, Burnt Friedman (what an apposite name he has ...) is in cocktail Latin mood, swinging extremely hot on from time to time-change.
The first four tracks are culled from Nonplace EPs 1 and 2, and a rumbustious bunch they are too. With Friedman's Disposable Rhythm Section making the funky grooves go with a twist of electronic precision and a light-hearted salsa down the aisles of any number of imaginary Southern Hemisphere bar-rooms. Vibraphones, congas and warm bass-booms plus some pretty flavoursome guitars courtesy of Josef Suchy liven up proceeding, and spread out further tendrils of happy manouverings around the dancefloor in the following four original tracks. Yep, and bass solos even crop up on "Destination Unknown", but best of all is the Moog workout from Atom Heart on "Das Wesen Auf Der Milchstrasse", a monster of rumbling analogue suaveness and swirly accompaniment which Progs out massively inna Jazz-Fusion stylee before its ten-minutes plus is up in a welter of clicks and burbles. Gasp.
Reading through Friedman's sleeve notes is always a laugh, and Con Ritmo's are no different, making much of the recording processes and their exact duplication of the group's sound. To quote We Promise:
1. Thrilliance And Clarity - The sound in startling BF Thrillosonic defintion.
2. Ballistic Presence - Sound Projected in photographic shotgun perspective.
3. etc etc. ...
And there's a whole lot more of this sort of thing, which makes a huge difference to the usual po-faced lists of technical details people are prone to puttin gon their CD booklets. Anyhow, back to the music, and "Gondel" rounds off the album in energetic fashion, with some nicely-discordant synths pushing the polished grooves off kilter among the gurglings and tootlings of virtual brass. Funny, Funky, and more than a little silly, Con Ritmo is largely enjoyable, so long as the undercurrent of lush sweetness is taken with the required dash of tequila and lime bitterness to make it all go down a little less than glibly." (freq.org.uk)