Apparat : Walls

Fifth album from Apparat, AKA Berlin's Sascha Ring, who had one hell of a year in 2006. His collaboration with Ellen Allien, the critically-acclaimed album Orchestra of Bubbles, forged electrifying new connections between Techno, Electro and Pop music. Despite its title, Walls isn't about dividing lines. Instead, it describes a circle that pulls many elements together into a protected, enclosed space where they jostle and roam free: strings and mallet instruments; rock guitar and gravelly sawtooth synths; stuttering digital percussion and muscular studio drumming. What might be most striking about Walls is the way it creates a kind of single, sustained mood. Apparat has melded his genius as a sound designer with his growing songwriting talents to craft 14 songs brimming with ideas, energy, texture, light, color. They are hummable, embraceable, swimmable, possibly edible. Shitkatapult. 2007.