Reviews

Out 16 April 2012: Philip Bader – Wishful Thinking Album (Highgrade113)

0 Comments 20 March 2012

Philip Bader – Wishful Thinking Album (Highgrade113): “House music producer gone wild”

 

Label. Highgrade Records
Artist. Phillip Bader
Title. Wishful Thinking
Format. CD Album, Digital
Cat.Number. Highgrade113
Release Date. April 16th, 2012
Distribution. Word and Sound, WhatPeoplePlay.com
Domain. http://www.highgrade-records.de

 

COVER ART

Photography showing trees inmidst fog, kept simple, dark and gloomy.

 

TRACKLIST

01 – Whisper
02 – Surfing Sabine
03 – Good For Nothing
04 – Wishful Thinking (feat Ja Hier)
05 – When The Drunken Clown Comes Around 06 – Miles High
07 – American Boy
08 – Shine On Us (feat Anna Luca)
09 – Soul Food
10 – Move On Me (feat Spoony Talker) 11 – Deep End
12 – Sunshine (feat Ja Hier)

 

TRACK REVIEW

01 Whisper

This is the ultimate intro track for an album that is hold dark and mysterious. It could have been featured in a soundtrack for a horror movie. Very CREEPY. If you listen to the whole album, you will understand why it fits so well as the beginning of a musical journey Bader takes the listeners to.

 

02 Surfing Sabine

Vocals whispering something you cannot really understand mixed with tweeting of birds in the background, sometimes crows crying. In the middle of the song another distorted male voice saying something, the words are torn, you cannot understand what he is really saying. All in all a very creepy song, getting goosebumps when the song ends.
One question:  Why the heck is the track called „Surfing Sabine“?

 

03 Good For Nothing

Featuring an echo of a voice over the danceable beats. Kept very minimalistic, spiced up with a male voice in between. The track develops further with interesting details regarding the instrumental part and adding a vocal chorus.

 

04 Wishful Thinking feat. Ja Hier

Beautiful track that has nothing to do with electronic dance music and  nevertheless gave the album the name. This is a jazzy surprise within an album you sort of expect to be danceable.
The female voice is put over the melody in the background – the piano chords are distorted, as if recorded from a distant recorder, creating a vintage sound, some house music elements like random effects are shuffled into the track.
Not really danceable, but definitely enjoyable.

 

05 When The Drunken Clown Comes Around

Bells mingling with a deep male voice and accompanying the beats. Mixing the sound of children´s toys or a even a carousel for the melody loop, the pitched-down voice repeating “I wanna go down” with clapping and the dark bassline create a track that, in its elements, does not seem to work together but seen as a whole, and makes up a clever one in the fashion of the whole mysterious picture of the album.

 

06 Miles High

One in the style of old school traditional house music, this track is made up of hi hat beats, drums that make your feet move and is kept very simple. No cymbal or hi hat later in the track can make it more interesting. Too simple, thus boring.

 

07 American Boy

This track is fun and the bassline is not as dark as some other ones on this album. Definitely one of the better dance tracks of the album. Here as well, Baders seems to have taken a voice and distorted it to the edge of unrecognizable. It perfectly blends in to the whole mood of the album – do we even hear a female chorus here? – and Will enlighten the crowd in clubs when played.

 

08 Shine On Us feat. Anna Luca

Wow. Shine On Us on this album is another big surprise. Simple piano melody, Anna Luca’s voice and techniques sounding like a mixture of Ingrid Michaelson and Björk. Not 100% happy about the instrumental arrangements – but like Wishful Thinking, putting the voice into the front and just underlining it with a simple melody / beat works very well. This track is one of the gems you discover only when you take your time to listen tot he full album.

 

09 Soul Food

Interesting bassline. Is it a cello? Philip Bader shows that not only Brandt Brauer Frick are able to create house / techno music with orchestral instruments. Favourite track of the album because you can dance to it, enjoy the light melody, and it never gets boring.

 

10 Move On Me feat. Spoony Talker

Bassline a bit too minimalistic, the pitched-down voice fits into the track concept, but I am not that convinced of this collaboration, since I do not really know when this one could be placed in a club.

Check out the Move On Me EP snippet yourself, though,  with remixes from Todd Bodine, Quenum and Fabrizio Maurizi:

 

11 Deep End

Classic beats and elements. „I just wanna take you with me“ sings the creepy voice, „come and fly with me“ – romantic lines coming from a scray background. Gasping voices. All in all a dark song that goes along with the red line oft he album.

 

12 Sunshine feat. Ja Hier

Beginning with the question „Is it any better to get up early than late?,“ the voice of Ja Hier is multilayered, multiplied to several ones.

Very jazzy ending of Philip Bader’s album on highgrade.

 

ALBUM REVIEW


House music producer gone wild.

 

I love how much work Philip Bader has put into this album. The diversity of the style of tracks never makes the listener tired of his music – but eager to hear the next track, as you never know what will surprise you next. A wonderful mixture of house, jazzy grooves and – mind me – a bit of pop.

 

You will not get bored by the tracks at all – for that, Bader has put a lot of effort to arrange the tracks so delicate that you will find joy in listening to it from the first to the last track.

 

House music producer gone wild. It is good to see that Bader has compiled an album of tracks that are beyond the common sense of house music albums.

 

Bader will definitely be played a lot more often than some others this year.

 

Excellent work.

 

Excellent work.

 

MORE INFO: 

“As a DJ, Philip Bader is in demand around the globe, en- rapturing crowds in Berlin and far away places like Tel Aviv and Rome. As a producer his release catalogue reads like a who’s who of the elctronic music scene, and his own label is also not to be taken lightly. Without question, this native Berliner is one of the most active and pioneering minds in the world of Techno. Now, Bader has recorded his first studio album for Berlin record label, Highgrade Records.

The title of the album, “Wishful Thinking“, already expres- ses one of Bader’s central desires: “I’ve tried to combine many styles, and also to bring in emotional elements to electronic music“. With this album he aims to leave be- hing any apparent restrictive boundaries and to simply let go creatively… wishful thinking? Not at all. “Wishful Thinking“ plays with conventional stylistic expectations, mixing what at first seem to be incompatible genres into a diverse and exciting album.

The excitetment within “Wishful Thinking“ is generated not least through the range of new and unexpected col- laborations present on the album. So is the voice of jazz singer Anna Luca, herself with a new album “Listen and Wait“, soon to be released in spring, employed by Bader, where her soulful voice shines through on the the track “Shine On Us“. For the tracks “Sunshine“ and “Wishful Thinking“, we are treated to a voice never before professi- onally recorded: “I had this insanely good piano loop and my best friend’s girlfriend sang over it and I immediately had goose bumbs!“ recalls Bader. For him it was a stroke of luck – as it was with many of the collaborating artists. “I think it’s great because the others bring something of themselves, and something entirely new is created“. “Wishful Thinking“ offers something completely new in every way. The album cannot be put into any one cata- gory, switching skillfully between electronic sounds, jazzy tones, and house rhythms, while other musical influences make themselves evident in the background. Neverthe- less, the album exists as a harmonious whole that loses none of it’s power or originality through it’s creative di- versity. From here, Bader’s audience will surely be curious about the content of his planned global tour.

For Philip Bader, “Wishful Thinking“ is the fullfillment of a dream that has taken a year to complete. “The longer you make music the more you want to get away from the standard 8 -15 tracks with the same contruction,“ This al- bum therefore, is the right meduim at the right time. The album was produced without any pressure, and as such Bader was able to let his creativity run free, something also that Highgrade Records has given him the freedom to achieve. “So I could make music that not everyone would have expected from me.“ Says Philip Bader himself. The result: Anything except Wishful Thinking.”

 

LINKS:

stylistberlin on FB: http://www.facebook.com/stylistberlinblog

Philip Bader Project: http://www.dantze.cc

Philip Bader FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/philipbader.official

Anna Luca: http://www.annalucaworks.de

 

Video interview of Philip Bader on youtube:

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