Artists: Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit
Title: Secret Rhythms
Cat.no.: non09
Format: CD / LP
Complete Tracklisting:
01. Rhein Rauf
02. Rechter WinkL
03. Royal Roost
04. Shades Of Soddin Orion
05. Rastafahndung
06. Gulli Verreisen
07. Wirklich
08. Obscured by 5 short version
09. Obscured by 5 nonplace remix
10. Obscured by 5 extended version
Since humankind learned how to walk, we've been moving on two legs. Whereas rhythm, after learning to dance, reflexively adopted a technologically more functional gait: forward-propulsion on all four feet. Contemporary percussive tools providing immediate mainstream current are standard studio equipment, and reside in toolboxes hanging next to a red alarm lamp signalling: 'Danger -- Open Quantizing!' More enticing is that roomy first-aid box containing diverse heart pacemakers for freestylers. Burnt Friedman and Jaki Liebezeit, those masters of deferral and playable unplayability, are living proof that freestyle-paced-hearts need neither race nor rattle. In the eye of the storm they are borne by secret rhythms, and deftly and casually manoeuvre round the jagged rocks of "four-four time". Operating expansively on utterly different levels on the other side of redundancy, they reduce hypertonic levels yet generate agitation through unpredictability. By economically adding multiple rhythms (3, 5, 7, 9), they simultaneously administer a much-needed portion of coolness. With Joseph Suchy, guitar and Morten Gronvad, vibraphone at their side, they constitute a musical organism. Their specific and inconceivably casual genre thus established, they proceed to get down to the business.
Reviews:
"... this disc glides effortless through genres. Whereas the sound occasionally comes close to ECM, at other moments it recalls Tortoise, rustic dub, cocktail jazz - albeit with just enough rhythmic obstinacy to avoid schmaltz - and even various echoes of ethnic music." (The Wire 2002)
"Jaki Liebezeit's quest is for the bare essence of rhythm; his playing sounds simple but has a feel most drummers can't touch." (Mojo 2002)
"It makes an almost ridiculous amount of sense: the original drumming machine making beautiful music with the most rhythmically astute music techno-logist on the planet. "Secret Rhythms" is the collaboration by Jaki Liebezeit and Nonplace Urban Field alchemist Burnt Friedman, and it's the kind of record that should make most would-be cyber icons lie down and quietly expire. Yes, it's that good. Already, I know that this opinion will meet with some stiff opposition from those who still hope that Friedman one of the post-techno pioneers of that increasingly tedious macro-genre known as "glitch" will return to his unbelievably cool and clever electronic work.
Like any genuine talent, Friedman moves ever onward, and the problem of "Secret Rhythms" is simply that it's such a subtle work that ears that should hear it simply won't make the effort. Pity those poor fools, because hidden within the strands of this strange hybrid is, as Friedman himself has said, the seeds of a new kind of jazz. Listen closely, and all the usual Friedman characteristics are in attendance: an attention to detail that borders on the clinically obsessive, twisted time-signatures and rhythmic patterns that become more inconceivable with every exposure. House music this is NOT, club-landers, and thank the Lord for that. Liebezeit's signature drum-mantra is etched into the vinyl of the coolest moments of rock history, and the potency of his distinctive style is barely diminished since his legendary moments in the early 70s. But here, instead of Can's grinding, volcanic energy, we have an utterly gorgeous, beguiling album featuring a plethora of bubbling tonal clusters courtesy of instruments like vibraharps, steel drums and kalimbas. Those who think that the peeling, bell-like sounds of these instruments are for aural soft-cocks can go fuck themselves. The rest of us will enjoy sinking back into our lazyboys and reveling in the richness of the tonal palette." (Oscillation Nation: Sonic Futures by Gary Steel)