Minilogue - Blomma

[GaySatanicHippie]

Sometimes I envy my dad. Like myself he is a big music enthusiast, but unlike my favorite electronic music “acts” who appear out of nowhere and disappear into the long tail of irrelevance every time a new musical fad hits the scene, his favorite rock bands have shown amazing staying power and grown old together with him throughout the various stages of his life.

 

Unfortunately, there are only two artists who have grown together with me from my formative late teenager years until now and whose musical journey I am deeply invested in. One of them is Atmos. Atmos always sounds like Atmos, and whatever he does one of his best and most rewarding qualities is that Atmos always sounds like Atmos. The other is Minilogue aka Son Kite aka Seb Mullaert and Markus Henriksson. They are the polar opposite of Atmos, because their music is constantly evolving and they always seem to be on a hunt to find new ways of expressing themselves through music. Looking at their output from the helicopter perspective, however, a cyclical pattern emerges, which is why the cover of their current album “Blomma” (a rainbow in the form of a circle) could not have been chosen any better.

 

The reason I say this is because for me, Minilogue have come full circle with” Blomma”. When they started their careers as Son Kite, their first releases where beat-driven, percussive affairs that did not contain many melodies or emotive elements. That slowly changed, culminating in the aptly titled “Colours” album that was filled with emotions and yes, colours, and that is justly considered one of the absolute highlights of progressive (psy)trance. Then they hit the reset button with their Minilogue project. After a short foray into progressive house, they returned to a deep hypnotic sound with a vibe not unlike the beginnings of Son Kite, but 10 BPM slower and in the context of the minimal techno scene that was dominating electronic music at the time. And from there, they once again set-out on a journey into the light, culminating, or should I say blossoming with “Blomma”, a masterpiece filled with emotions and colours like its predecessor from the Son Kite era.

 

Don`t get me wrong, on the surface “Blomma” sounds nothing like “Colours”. During all those years, Minilogue has evolved into one of the most unique and idiosyncratic electronic music artists around. Tracks over 20 minutes are the norm, and they have developed a free-flowing, jamming style of music production that results in something that could best be described as “music as your stream of consciousness”. Tracks just seem to float along without a beginning or an end, new ideas entering and leaving without an apparent purpose, effortlessly taking the listener from one atmosphere to the next without a care in the world. They make it sound easy, but they can only do so because they have become true masters at their craft, jamming along on vintage analogue synthesizers that give all their tracks that special something that sometimes hurts a bit in the ears when playing it loud. But that’s all part of the charm, analogue resonance can be a bitch to control sometimes…

 

“Blomma” reminds me of “Colours” because its vibe is also unashamedly trancy and melodic, it just utilizes a totally different approach and sound palette to get there. The first Minilogue tracks that were produced in this new improvisational style always had kind of a jazzy element to them, and most of them featured those ploinky, arpeggios that have become a Minilogue trademark. “Blomma” replaces the jazz and ploink with 70s psychedelia and early Frankfurt trance, or in other words, “Blomma” sounds exactly like what I would imagine Pink Floyd would sound like if they made electronic music. And that is quite spectacular! All tracks with a straight 4/4 beat (1,2 and 4) are perfect examples of this and are the highlights of this album. They are incredibly deep, musical, and trippy, and especially the second track “Atoms…” is something that really touches the heart and always leaves a smile on my face. The more chilled tracks are also great, and especially in the 45 minute-long opening track of the second CD Minilogue shows off their impressive synth collection with some awesome analogue filter sweeps that always give me and probably everyone else who is into that kind of thing goosebumps. But it would be wrong to go describe every single track in detail, “Blomma” is one journey to be enjoyed and be inspired by in its entirety.

 

To sum it up, “Blomma” is IMHO Minilogues best work to date, it is a very mature and musical album that shows that Seb and Markus are true musicians, and not just electronic music producers like 95% of everyone else active in this scene. I`m glad to have gone on this journey with them from their humble beginnings to reach this point of full-fledged sonic mastery, and I can`t wait to see where they will take me next. I know it will be someplace unexpected, but I know it will be good!

[Richpa]

Can't wait to check Blooma, friend told me that album sounds awesome and when it comes to Minilogue, you can't be dissappointed. Thanks for the review.

[Manuser]

Nice review, but to be honest.. is it psychedelic trance, at all ? It's like writing a review of a Jeff Mills album here on psynews To me it sounds 100% techno, melodic minimal techno or minimal house. And ambient techno for the second CD... so yes it's a very nice album, very mature, perfectly executed, tracks are long and hypnotic, like the best minimal techno should be ! I would pick the first 2 tracks as my favourites.

 

Be careful, listen to samples before buying ; )

 

8,5 /10 for first disc.

5 /10 for second disc (this kind of ambiant is less my cup of tea)

[GaySatanicHippie]

Well, it depends on how you define psychedelic trance. If you define it as KBBB at over 140 BPM with synthfarts, then no, this is not psytrance.

 

If you define psytrance as something that is psychedlic and trance inducing, than this is totally psytrance. I guess that was also the whole point of my review, one can create psytrance without adhering to conventions of this genre.

[frisbee]

good music!

[Manuser]

Well, it depends on how you define psychedelic trance. If you define it as KBBB at over 140 BPM with synthfarts, then no, this is not psytrance.

 

If you define psytrance as something that is psychedlic and trance inducing, than this is totally psytrance. I guess that was also the whole point of my review, one can create psytrance without adhering to conventions of this genre.

 

Sorry but no, ... psychedelic yes maybe it is, trance no it's not. It's minimal techno, maybe psychedelic minimal techno, not psytrance

even discogs says Minimal, Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient, Field Recording

 

Cocoon recordings... ? german techno label created by Sven Vath.

 

(don't take me wrong, I do like the album, very very beautiful, but i'm saying that for people reading this review and who are not into minimal techno (ok they will listen to the samples anyway )

[operon]

10 out of 10, these guys are light years beyond in terms of musicianship and creativity than what today is considered psytrance. One of the few artists that started from the psychedelic scene and then matured to the heights they are now on. Full on sucked the juice out of many respected psy/goa artists from the golden era...