A Night In An Abandoned Power Station - Yello Go Live

Yello. What’s that all about?

Electronic. Experimental. Pioneering. Eclectic. Humorous. Niche. Unique. Acquired taste. Quirky. Arty.
Does that help? To an extent it probably does. But add another few important descriptors to that list.
Shy. Studio bound. Publicity avoiding. Aloof, even?

Where to start with Yello? For me it goes back to 1988 on the Isle of Man. As you might expect (weird), or not (much more likely). With a bunch of good mates, we’d just seen 3 days of the best tarmac rallying you can imagine. This guy called Snijers had popped over from Belgium in his BMW M3 seeking European championship points. He’s never going to beat the established Brits and Irish who’ve dominated the event for years – surely he had no chance against the likes of Jimmy McRae? And yet there we were watching this M3 dance over the roads of Man – perfectly placed, power sliding spectacularly, pushing the limits at every opportunity, flying flat and landing squarely ready for the next bit of aggressive driving. To win by a margin of over 30 seconds on a debut on the island is unprecedented. Have a look at this YouTube video to get a flavour.

We turn up at the massive prize giving ceremony venue and the podium placed cars are in the room, arranged in front of the stage. The lights go down and we’re treated to a 4 minute highlights video on the big screen – 4 minutes of incredibly aggressive yet controlled and spectacular driving from Snijers in the BMW. Those of you who know Yello will have guessed where this is going – the backing track was “The Race” and I guess the whole atmosphere and spectacle meant I was hooked on Yello from then onwards.

Fast forward somewhat across the decades since 1988 and I’ve a fair collection of Yello albums – mostly from that period onwards. Boris Blank and Dieter Meier have been working together on the Yello project on and off for 38 years at the time of writing. Quite some career. Based out of Switzerland, they’re a niche band in the UK – their new album launched in September 2016 did pretty well by Yello standards, peaking at number 84 in the chart.  They have a very loyal but thinly spread fan base across the globe. In 2013, you can read what we did at the Scalford Hifi Show when we played a Yello DVD all day on a loop with a projector and a Sony / Linn / Rotel / Mission based system. It drew praise and disdain in fairly equal measure, to be fair – but fun to do something different at the show.

Its often not long before a Yello track is played when I’m sitting down in front of the Musings system. It helps that the music is produced with great care and attention to sound quality. My 15 year old daughter’s caught the bug too – we both really looked forward to the new album this year.
So 38 years, and yet never a live show. There’s some debate about that “fact”. Apparently they played in Zurich a good few years back, but its unclear if there was anything “live” about the performance, beyond the vocals. Either way, they’ve never done a real “gig” and most of us expected it would never happen. Boris is now 64 and Dieter 72, so what are the chances?

Rumours of a new album kicked off in mid-2015, and would be their first together since Touch in 2009.  That’s how long this loyal fanbase has to wait! The album was “coming soon” for a very long time. Then suddenly, this summer, a few rumours started circulating about a couple of one-off gigs, late in 2016.  Seemed implausible to impossible. And why would they do it after all this time? A couple of old guys on stage behind synths – what kind of show would that be? But its never straightforward with Yello – their videos are often quirky, use interesting and contemporary techniques and they apply as much attention to this and the album artwork as they do to the music. May be this could work. May be it would never happen.

Bang! It happened – I can’t remember which way around it happened, but I think it was the gig announcement first, then the definitive release date of the new album – to be called Toy. As you can imagine, the excitement about the gigs set that tiny corner of t’internet that concerns itself with electronic music on fire. But no clue as to location, number of gigs, was it a tour, etc. etc. Shortly the information came clear – 2 gigs in Berlin. That was it. How could I resist? Then it became clear that the dates were in the school holidays. I spend quite a bit of time with my son who’s also into cars and we go mountain biking together but here was a chance to spend some time with my daughter which would be great. We even managed to get tix to the first of the 2 live gigs. Making it a weekend (we’ve never been to Berlin before) flights and hotels were sorted.


When Yello released the first single from the Toy album – Limbo – the video was filmed in a concrete former power station building in Berlin called Kraftwerk – some might find that a little ironic. Its all very robust, industrial, brutal and with the fog and lighting in the video it created a very atmospheric backdrop, and this was to be the venue for the gig.  Mixed feelings about that. Standing, in an old power station, pretty unusual way to go about it. How the gig would be staged, what tracks would be played, would the venue work – all of these things were hot topics of on line discussion. After the first 2 gigs were sold out – 2 more were added, one before the one we had booked so ours was no longer the first gig. The new first gig was to be seated which I initially thought would be better, but it turns out I was wrong about that one.

The Toy album was released and it’s a fantastic piece of work – musically and physically, particularly in the CD format which is a small hardback book of images, lyrics, artwork etc. Musically I find 80% of it very listenable and there are 4 outstanding tracks – 30,000 days, Dark Side, Blue Biscuit and Electrified II. It bodes well for the gig as there’s bound to be a good few new tracks on the set list. Guest vocals from Malia (who collaborated with Boris Blank a few years ago to create the excellent Convergence album) and newcomer Fifi Rong from London complement the music very well and contrast starkly with Dieter Meier’s robust bass ramblings.

Berlin is a great place for a visit, but we’ll not concern ourselves with the rest of the city here.  Let’s get on with the gig. My 15 year old daughter’s first experience of a proper rock/pop event, and an interesting place to start. Let’s also cut to the chase – this evening was a fantastic experience – I really did have concerns about “never meet your heros” and would the whole thing work as a concept and would it feel like a live gig, given the very electronic nature of the music. So how come it was such a great experience? People, music, visuals, atmosphere, buzz, anticipation, seeing something that you never thought would happen, sharing the experience with my daughter who was equally thrilled, it all gelled together so well.

The gig and the use of the venue was extremely well thought through. After meeting up with some fellow concert goers in a bar 2 mins walk from the venue, we discussed what we thought the gig would be like, if we needed to be in early or not, etc. Information before hand has been distinctly sketchy, although it was very clear that doors open at 7pm and the band would be on stage at 9pm. We headed round the corner and entered the anonymous looking building through what looked like a side door. No grand venue entrance or branding here. Adds nicely to the sense of mystery and anticipation.

Specially commissioned beer glasses contributed to making a gig into an event -

Kraftwerk is split into 2 levels. Entering on the ground floor we found a few of the usual things you expect – a bar with overpriced beers and a merch stall with overpriced t-shirts, beanie hats and some signed vinyl albums. Beer was served in plastic glasses unique to the event – combining the latest Yello logo with a graphic of the TV tower of Berlin – a nice touch. But really we were already into the gig. Arranged all around the lower floor were large old skool CRT monitors, playing classic Yello videos and there were instrumental Yello tracks washing around the venue.  This, combined with the stage smoke and shafts of light cutting through, had already created the atmosphere and it was still 90 mins before the start of the show.  We mingled downstairs for a while, then made our way to the performance area on the upper floor.  Here the sheer scale of the building became clear – the place is massive – a high roof supported on rugged concrete pillars, the original gantry cranes still up there to add to the authenticity. Again the lighting up here was clever, emphasising the vastness of the space, creating long dark shadows and the choice of background music was dark, bass driven and of the menacing variety. Large cut-out areas in the floor allow views to the gathering area below and the gentle fade changes of colour in the mist were very effective.

Downstairs amidst the videos and the mist

Looking down into the pre-gig gathering area

Looking towards the stage - here you can see the old factory cranes still suspended from the ceiling

Looking away from the stage into Kraftwerk's vast space

The stage is at one end of the hall and has a vast array of electronic “stuff” arranged in a horseshoe to the right, but we also get a clue about the approach tonight – there are 2 drum kits on stage and there’s clearly going to be a good few people up there with Boris and Dieter. As a backdrop there’s a vast screen of the type normally seen at big sporting events. 20 minutes or so before 9pm, a tiny blurred yellow set of letters appear on the vast screen – and they’re rotating as individual letters.  Over the 20 minutes the letters gradually get larger – soon its clear that the 5 letters are YELLO – they rotate as individual letters and their place within the word – sometimes spelling OYELL, LOYEL etc. And they become clearer too.  At pretty much exactly 9pm they are fully resolved and fill the complete screen. Backed by the intro to the track Takla Malan, this is a great way to build up the intro and grab the attention of the crowd.

Build up

A view of and from the desk

A long long wait (decades!) finally ends as “Magma” plays and the band emerge onto stage. Boris takes up station behind the horseshoe of gear and Dieter takes centre stage. The first full tracks are "Do It" and “The Evening's Young” and there’s a hint of stiffness on stage – this is only the second night and to start with, that shows. Dieter spends the evening reading his lyrics from a prompt, Boris looks like he’s playing perhaps a lead melody over the top of the rest of the electronic sounds. That might sound like it wasn’t going to be a good night, but that’s not the case. The visuals behind the stage were spectacular – mixing clips from classic Yello videos, new patterns and graphics, vivid colours and well matched to the mood of each track. But what really brought the performance to life, for me, were 2 things – the live musicians and the extension of the light show into the entire arena.

With 2 drummers and kits and a lead guitarist to the left, a trio of backing singers right of centre and a 5 piece horn section arranged to the right, their playing and on-stage animation and activities brought life and enthusiasm to the gig. And by about 3 or 4 tracks in, there was a palpable change in the atmosphere on stage – everyone seemed to get relaxed into their roles and from that point on, it really looked like the whole ensemble were enjoying what they were doing. And its fair to say the audience followed suit – standing became the right way to arrange a Yello gig as the tracks ramped up in pace and familiarity.

Brass section gets animated

What about the building? The robust “architecture” worked well for this gig. The lighting techs did a great job of lighting the whole environment – shafts of light piercing through the mist, emphasising the size of the venue and adding to the feel of some of the more ethereal and moody tracks. Sequenced to work with the music the lights switched between low level mood colours, seemingly random dancing and chasing around the building in sequence. This all underpinned by the openings in the floor that exposed the floor below and emphasised the space even further.

Percussion

There’s some brief introductions to songs and a little banter from Dieter – most of it in English, some in German, and a warm welcome to the gig. But in the main, the focus is on the music – a set list which blended some early tracks, some greatest hits and, of course, a number of tracks from the new album “Toy”. Dieter’s largely spoken vocals were well delivered at the right time and I didn’t notice any fluffing, if any happened.  Each track from the “Toy” album was played pretty much as per the studio version, the older tracks get a little new flavouring or twists, but they were all very easily recognised and comfortingly familiar. Like most of the audience, we talked and sang along with the lyrics, but luckily for those around us, the PA easily drowned out my bad singing. There’s been quite a bit of discussion of the setlist – quite a few were looking for more of the “classic” tracks and, inevitably with such a long back catalogue, it was impossible to cover everyone’s favourite track. Here’s what Boris and Dieter chose to run with:


Pre-show background: Intro to Takla Makan
Magma during walk-on
Do It
The Evening Is Young
Limbo
Bostich
Electrified II (with Malia)
Cold Flame (with Malia)
30,000 Days
Time Tunnel
Kiss The Cloud (with Fifi Rong)
Lost In Motion (with Fifi Rong)
Tied Up
Liquid Lies
Starlight Scene (with Malia)
Tool Of Love
Oh Yeah
Blue Biscuit
Si Senor The Hairy Grille

Visuals for "Time Tunnel" - Boris Blank just visible behind his rig on the right

The boys were joined on the stage by guest vocalists Malia and Fifi Rong to perform songs from “Toy”. Malia was introduced to me through the “Convergence” collaboration with Boris Blank – she has a fabulously smokey smooth jazz voice that works so well with Blank’s very sophisticated tunes and soundscapes. On that album is a track called “Smoldering Ashes” which is a smooth melodic and dark song. For “Toy”, Yello have re-worked the track into a more electronic, rhythmic vibe – renamed it "Cold Flame" - and I have to say I prefer the original when listening at home. But on stage in a live setting, the "Cold Flame" version worked very well indeed – a real drive to groove along to. Fifi Rong is a very young artist from London who is starting to make way in the music business. Her vocals are a contrast to Malia, skilfully applied to exactly the right music flavours by Boris, a sound that’s more ethereal, spooky if you like. Both ladies added significantly to the success of the evening and performed flawlessly – they added to the visuals too with spectacular clothing and Rong’s extreme eyelashes!  The camera work was great here too – blending close-ups of the singers over the top of the main video / graphics showing on the big screen at the back of the stage. Its worth mentioning the horn section here too – they really contributed to the tracks you would expect – adding impact, dynamics and a visual aspect to the music.

Dieter is joined on stage by Malia

Visually and vocally, Fifi Rong stunned the crowd

The sound wasn’t perfect – using the now common curved arrays suspended from the ceiling either side of the stage and then at 2 further points down the length of the venue. We were positioned just right of centre, about 20 rows back and mid-way between the stage side arrays and the first set of reinforcements down the length of the hall. There was plenty of power and all the hard surfaces of the venue didn’t, for us at least, give an empty echoing acoustic, thankfully. The music was a touch muffled – it could of done with more clarity and slam – and for some of the tracks the vocals could have been higher in the mix. It wasn’t bad, it worked better than I expected given the type of venue, but I’ve heard better and much much worse of course.

Given that the track “The Race” hadn’t been part of the main set, it was pretty obvious what was going to feature in the encore – which, equally obviously, was demanded by the audience. But there was another treat first – something which seems to have been added compared the first show. Boris launched a smartphone app a few years back called Yellofier. It’s worth looking up, but I always thought it was a toy rather than a way to produce music. So the boys brought a smartphone on stage, plugged it into the PA and took us through developing a track, supposedly “live”. I suspect the creating of the track probably was “live” but seems to have been a repeat of creating an existing track to show how that can be captured and then developed. I say this because what followed on from the basics of the track was a fully developed version that really bounced along and got the audience animated again. Dieter vocalised over the top in his familiar style. Good fun.

And so to the final track of the night – of course, “The Race”. More great visuals mixing parts of the original video with new content, the audience in motion and joining in with the choruses. Part way through, the track backed off a little and Rush, Push, Cash was skilfully inter-weaved with The Race as Dieter introduced the whole 15 piece band. “The Race” was a great (if predictable) way to finish the show – great stuff.

Yellofier - live

The Race

Taking a bow

Then back downstairs to the free aftershow party – glasses refreshed and we revisited the CRT videos and listened to the tracks being spun by the DJ in the dark misty and atmospheric venue. Here Malia, Fifi and the backing singers mingled (maybe some of the musicians too, but I didn’t see them myself) with the crowd, posing for photos, signing autographs etc. A really nice touch and so refreshing to see band members making themselves available.

And there’s further good news. As the Berlin gigs worked so well, Yello have announced that they’ll take the show on the road. Its not clear what that means, but I think we can expect a small number of gigs in a very select number of cities worldwide.  Plus, Yellosphere at the Ministry of Sound in London on 24th November 2016 - an evening of electronic music with Dieter and Boris playing some of their classic tracks and some recordings and visuals from Berlin. With the 3rd and 4th gigs being recorded, there's hope for a DVD in the near future too.



An aside:
If you make a bit of effort, as we did when going to Berlin, and get dressed up in something appropriate and unique for the gig, you might just get a round of applause on entering the gig, pictures with the guest singers, a chat with the album cover photographer, a chat with the band's sound / mastering engineer, and if you're extremely lucky, the chance to go backstage to meet the band. An excellent weekend became something to exceptional and treasure for a long time to come...

The power station's control room (and, indeed, the rest of the Kraftwerk venue) where we met up with Dieter and Boris, is featured in the Limbo video:

A Tale Of Two Yellos

Boris Blank and Dieter Meier - the heart of electronic / electronica / pop music creators and production team who call themselves Yello.  Or have done for many decades.  You can enjoy lots of their material here on Spotify.

They're frequently playing on my system, from the earlier stuff like "The Race" on the album "Flag", through complexities such as "Nervous" on "The Eye" to the latest (2009!) sophisticated and equally complex but far more subtle tracks with Heidi Happy and Till Bronner on the "Touch" album, I enjoy their quirkiness, sense of humour and unique blend of electronic music with real tunes rather than just beats.  With "Touch" a 10 year trend became very well resolved - a move to a more sophisticated, jazz inspired kind of direction. Bland even sings in a more traditional sense when dueting with Happy on the "Touch" track "Kiss In Blue".  And pretty much every one of their albums has been a sound quality benchmark of its time.

At the Scalford Hifi Wigwam show this year I showcased the "Touch Yello" virtual concert DVD throughout the day on a modest Rotel / Mission fronted system with a Dell projector and it seems to have gone down reasonably well with a good number of visitors.  That's reported here, but is an aside to this review really.  Today I'm going to review Yello's respective solo releases - they've come about 4 or 5 months apart - an interesting departure, but hopefully not the end of future releases for them together as Yello.

You can read about Yello in the usual places, wikipedia for example, where you'll get the history, discography etc.  I don't have their very earliest stuff as I don't like it so much, but have all the major releases from 1987's "One Second" through to the VW Golf promotion of 2012 "The Key To Perfection".  My first real experience of their stuff was when "The Race" was used as a backing track to a 5 minute or so summary video of Patrick Snijers' incredible driving skill as he took his BMW M3 to a stunning victory on his first visit to the Isle of Man in 1988.  Playing on a big screen as the prelude to the rally's awards ceremony, it certainly made an impression when matched to those images.  Still one of the best pieces of driving I've had the pleasure to witness first hand.

Imagine this:

 

With this as the soundtrack:

 

So that was worth further investigation. Hence began my interest in Yello and their music that's never really gone away in the intervening 26 years (gulp!).  They're pretty experimental in their approach.  The music tends to have a few constant features - a very clear beat, melodic & very deep bass lines, multiple layers of complexity, mixing electronics & orchestral arrangements and a very quirky sense of humour.  How many bands can include Shirley Bassey and "Tweaky" from the Buck Rogers TV programme as guest vocalists for example?  There's diversity, sophistication and a unique approach across their work, and whilst it doesn't always hit the mark, most of the time it works well, as long as you like that kind of stuff.  Give it a try if you don't know them yet.

Now, after so many years working together, they've released solo projects.  The first to market was Boris Blank in partnership with Malia with "Convergence".  This week the pre-ordered signed copy of Dieter Meier's "Out Of Chaos" landed on my doorstep.  These albums aren't on general release in the UK, but they are available through the likes of Amazon.de using an Amazon.co.uk account id.  "Out of Chaos" can be legally downloaded in full CD quality on junodownload.co.uk  "Convergence" is available as a CD quality download at qobuz, if you're lucky enough to be in the right territory. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate at 24 bit / 96kHz or similar quality versions as yet.

Malia and Boris Blank - Convergence
On Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/6EqhJyJT6R5HZTfENZPyqP

If you were hoping that Yello would continue the direction they were taking with 2009's "Touch" album, particularly those tracks with Heidi Happy on vocals, then this would probably have been a great follow up album.

What's there?  All those lush Boris Blank hallmarks are there:  deep, tune-laden bass lines, somewhat mysterious and layered percussion, shadowy underpinnings (you might not spot some of the subtleties until the third or fourth listen), strong structure, changes in direction and masses of layered synthesized orchestral stuff.  Malia's jazz / african vocals are superb throughout, as are the strengths of the song and tune writing.  With only one cover on the album ("Fever") the quality of the songs from this pairing are impressive - varied, fresh, sophisticated and well suited to the blend of electronica with jazz.  Yet again, production values and sound quality are sky high.

What's not there?  The quirky humour is distinctly absent - this is almost Boris Blank saying that this is his "grown up" approach to music.  And that's great.  It would be a mistake for a Yello album to move away from the humour, but here, with Malia, its the right approach.  It doesn't mean that there is no humour in this album, its just much more subtle rather than up front.  I often think that Yello's humour is probably what prevents them from reaching a wider audience - it's likely to drive some listeners to not take them seriously as musicians.  This is a shame, as they are very serious about their humour!  There are no really "edgy" tracks here, some might take it as a bit too smooth.

Celestial Echo: We kick off with some deep, echoing, haunting electronic bass drums and some subtle effects as Malia advises us that she's the mad storyteller.  She seems to be out to save the soul of a lover and to offer comfort.  There's some doubt about how this ends - there's no clue about if the offer is taken up.  Underneath the story the bass drums continue their tune and there are instrumental interludes which are impressively subtle but don't add much to the storyline.  I get the feeling it went well, but I don't really care too much as its not really very involving.

Embrassable Moon: The pace picks up a touch here and Malia's voice is more expressive - there's a raspy edge now, which is more engaging.  This is another positively spun tune on a familiar theme ("I live to breath the air that you breathe") with some lilting percussion under a keyboard and sax led melody.  It drifts along and then fades out without you really noticing.

I Feel It Like You:  Perhaps a touch of Yello quirkiness here?  Its a contrast to the first 2 tracks with a rhythm that bounces along a little playfully and some of that synthesised flicks and tricks in the percussion that will be familiar to fans.  The guitar riff and hand claps /  finger clicks drive the track along well, along with splashes of horn section.  Again this is a positive track, but there's a playful mystical twist to the way its structured and sung - its a love rekindled rather than a given.

Touching Ghosts:  Oooh, now we're getting going.  This tracks opens with a swimming, swooning melodic line and Malia sounding a little melancholy.  The voice and sad lyrics are contrasting with the more playful melody of the instruments.  Pauses in the tune give you time to reflect - there's mystery in here (and a reference to a later track with "I put a spell on you" used as a backing line), deep bass melody is inter-played with brass interjections and the snowflakes keep falling.  This track leaves me wanting to hear a longer version - it could develop into something very delicious indeed.

Claire Cadillac:  I can't quite get my head around what this one's about.  But there's no doubt that Malia's showing off here vocal versatility in this one - one moment its a bit girlish and playful, the next its multi-tracked lushness.  I think it could be about jealously of another woman who "has it all".  There's synthesised dulcimer and other unexpected elements in here.  This track is both playful and sinuous at the same time.  With the prevous track and this one, I'm hooked into this album now.

Raising Venus:  Sadness and ruthlessness are the themes here.  She'll burn you.  But its also very sinister and that comes through in both Malia's vocals, the tension in the music and the interjections from synths and other squarks and squeeks in true Yello style.  But the way Malia sings "Little Red Riding Hood drives through, she does not cry, boo hoo" is like a really unpleasant story teller trying to scare the life out of a bunch of primary school kids.  And me.  This is a slightly disturbing track and rather good for it.

Fever:  I refreshing take on this classic track.  Constructing the backing track very sparsely from drums and a single synth with trademark (but very difficult to describe) noises and punctuation, swinging along at a very gentle pace transposes this track from exciting and celebratory to something a bit more predatorial. 

Smouldering Ashes: Smoldering voice.  Malia talks us through this track, and you could probably say this is the one track that Dieter Meier could deliver equally well.  The percussion bounces along in the background with long trumpet cords tying the drums to the melody.  Very sparse again here.  Its one of those tracks that sounds very simple, but probably took many hours of experimentation to ensure that the right balance of tension and emphasis is delivered.  Its another song that's about something that's not happy.  There's something in there about being together but as part of possession rather than partnership and then there's something about that going wrong too.  These unhappy topics really do work well in this collaboration between Malia and Blank.

Magnetic Lies:  This and the next 2 tracks drive this album towards a real songwriting crescendo.  Deep staccatto bass lines with swooping instrumental fills blend superbly with Malia's seductive sweeping multi-tracked vocals.  Its about cheating in relationships.  There are some elements where it the chord changes are very much carrying an air of that cheating, but enjoying it too.  There's one particular chord change that needs a system to go deep to work fully - on my main system it goes deep enough to mean that the lower notes in the chord change are reproduced and its distinctly melancholy.  On the dining room system that can't get that low the chord change sounds somewhat happier.  Interesting to hear how the system's ability to resolve the recording can change the emotional content.

Tears Run Dry:  Oh, how the sadness continues in Malia's world, but that's good for us because it produces another stonking track.  The timing of the musical phrasing in this track is superb.  A walking bass line dominates, but various muted trumpets (probably not real ones of course!) build the feel, along with the occasional echoing percussion exclamation points.  "Tears run dry, what's left to try?  Tears run dry, you lost all your balls".  Says it all really, except that this is another track that deserves another couple of minutes of development but ends too soon and leaves you wanting for more.

Turner's Ship:  More mystery.  More echoing deep drums, but this time they're slower paced, spaced out and take a long time to fade away.  Then there's the surprise of a very African tribal chant which is positive sounding and tuneful.  Then Malia cuts in, supported by hand claps and percussion that will be familiar to those who know "The Key To Perfection", along with multiple complex arrangements of cow bells, cymbals, bongos and other percussion, to deliver another heart-wrenching set of lyrics.  Not love this time, but it would seem to be the tragedy of hunger and the imbalance of poverty to wealth.  Sobering.  Another really engaging track.

Conclusion:  After the first couple of tracks that are more positive and light in outlook but which are a little bland, this album really gets going.  Once Malia gets into the meat of the serious, melancholic and in some cases downright twisted/tragic topics the musical quality of the album transcends the slick and sophisticated presentation and becomes a more engaging listen.  Not to be missed by any Yello enthusiast, but also deserves to be embraces by a much wider audience as a great mix of electronic with jazz.

Dieter Meier - Out of Chaos

If you're familiar with Meier's contribution to the Yello albums, that gruff, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes playful, sometimes downright weird deep baritone voice will be very familar.  Is it singing? Not really.  Is it rap?  Nope.  I guess it's more of an in-tune talk really.  You'll not mistake it, that much is sure.

What's there?  This is a step back in time for a Yello listener.  If you consider the direction of "The Eye", "Touch" and "The Key To Perfection" as the way Yello has developed over the last 10 years, then Meier's solo project doesn't really pursue that path further, but steps back to the more individualistic work and is better aligned to the left field of electronic music.  The "singing" is more of that deep tuneful talking too.  Sound quality is decent, but doesn't feel outstanding.

What's not there?  Well, you don't get that super sophisticated jazz-infused lushness of "Convergence", nor even of Yello's own work with the likes of Heidi Happy.  Curiously, the humour's not there either - this must come from the guys working together rather than them as individuals.

Conclusion:  I was going to write notes about each of the tracks.  But, to date, I just don't feel there's enough differentiation between the tracks to merit writing about them individually.  On a Yello album, Deiter Meier's vocal contributions are well placed and welcome - they're usually on the more sinister / quirky songs and are great when other tracks are pure instrumentals or feature guest vocalists.  But track after track, they become rather wearing and lose there mysterious edge - they just become a bit monotonous.  There are various musical stylings under the lyrics but they're hard to associate with - its a more electronic kind of sound - it doesn't sound as mature as Yello's and Blank's offerings.  Some tracks I've still to get all the way through, and there's a doubt that I'll bother.  So overall, rather a disappointment.


So there we have it.  I'm still looking forward to the next Yello album (hopefully there will be one) and would welcome more from Boris Blank and whoever he cares to collaborate with.  On the flip side, I won't worry too much if Meier produces another solo effort - you might like it, but its not for me.