Album Review : SOOL by Ellen Allien

Released in 2008 on B Pitch Control music.

Ellen Allien is a German electro musician / producer / label founder. She recorded this album with the help of Anty Greie aka AGF. Ellen describes making her music as " going into the studio and pushing buttons while singing"

The Good : A very forward thinking piece of dark, spacey, minimal electro music. Very subtle. There a few moments that pick up the pace a little, but for the most part this album has a very dark, reflective feel to it. SOOL has a wide array of interesting sound effects and sound manipulation. This album makes good use of space and atmosphere. An album full of weird surprises and alien sounds.

The Bad : SOOL can be very cold and uninviting at first. Not an album that is instantly rewarding or engaging. It's an album you have to push yourself into. No real catchy singles or dance floor friendly tracks. No the kind of music to play if want to get motivated or "pumped".

In conclusion, SOOL is an interesting listen. It's an album that stimulates the imagination. I think being a fan of sci fi will be an asset to enjoying this album. People who like their music to take them on mental journeys will probably enjoy this.

Fans of minimal, IDM and mellow electronica will probably enjoy this album. Good probably be used as comedown music as well.

4/5

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ellen
• Allien
• SOOL
• Einsteigen
• Caress
• BIM
• Sprung
• Elphine
• Zauber
• Its
• Ondu
• Frieda
• MM
• Out
• album
• review

[theneedledrop]

Sad I didn't hear about this last year! :-(

[YoureWrongImRight]

Grayson Curin turned me on to it.

;-)

[theneedledrop]

I'm pretty sure he turned everyone on to everything.

[YoureWrongImRight]

Hoepfully his butt gets better soon.

[elvispresly1]

Great Vid :D Ellen Allien has some pretty good songs :) the song "Way Out" is not that bad. 5 STARS! wierd noises =P

[YoureWrongImRight]

Yeah, she makes some pretty original sounding stuff. Weird noises are the shit.

[polepole10000]

PS thanks- I think you described this album really well! Its a hard one to explain to people

[polepole10000]

Yeah! artists shouldnt compare themselves to aliens, unless they actually ARE aliens... I think everybody said Sun Ra was an alien

[RickyShoreSings]

ellen alien? i'm weary of artists that compare themselves to aliens. there was this awful canibus song about aliens on his first record and it would always give me the willies... not in a good way. too bad canibus' career began with an ll cool j diss and ended with the same song. i can't believe he has as many albums as he does, and i can't believe he has a following. a lot of my friends listen to canibus. makes no sense to me. same with this comment. what does my comment have to do with ellen?

[jaythestingray]

Cool man...I will check it out. Good comedown music for sure.