Artist: Atom Heart & Pink Elln
Title: Elektronikkaa
Format: 12" single
Label: Rising High
Catalogue Number: RSN71
Year of Release: 1993
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A Elektroniikkaa 1&2 (Live At The Temple Helsinki 14/11/92) (23:54)
B Electronique (Live At The Casino Montreux 07/06/92) (22:23)
£3.99! That works out at about 8.5p per minute of music - that must be some kind of record (pardon the pun) at least as far as vinyl is concerned. You could probably download it for tuppence these days, but where's the fun in that?
Anyway, musically, these two tracks are closest in style to early Namlook/Fax stuff, crossed with Plastikman-style beats. So close, in fact, that I spotted some noises that Pete Namlook used on his own live releases (Live at XSI and the Namlook VI: The Caves of Cubik to be exact, once again showing my trainspottery knowledge of all things Kuhlmann - I didn't even have to look them up... [although this is nothing to be proud of, obviously]).
Side A begins with drifty synth noises, as per the artist already mentioned four times, then about two minutes in it goes a bit Tangerine Dream with some speedy arpeggios. Then we get the four/four 808 drums - just the bass drum to begin, other percussion comes in and out later on.
From here on in there's really just variations on filtered synth lines over the bass-drums, excepting a beatless passage which probably marks the distinction between parts one and two. It's testament to the production skills of these two that it doesn't ever get boring, although I imagine it sounded a good deal better live.
The Plastikman sounding parts are towards the end, when the percussion gets more interesting, but unlike Richie Hawtin there are some chords layered over the beats and bass line that make it more interesting, but less hypnotic.I thought it was going a bit Techno!Techno!Techno!Techno! when a robotic vocal sample was dropped, but danger was narrowly averted by the track ending.
Side B is just a remix of A really, although given it was performed five months earlier, it should probably be the other way around. There's an intro and outro by a French-Canadian MC that's been left in too, which provides some amusement, as he crashes both English and French together, with an American accent.
Same deal otherwise though - floaty synth intro, arpeggios, 4/4 bass drum, other percussion, effected synths. It does lock into a nice groove for the majority of the side, and you can tell that Atom Heart & Pink Elln are having fun playing around with noises over the top, most notably a selection of snare rolls. It ends differently, by slowing down, and in the final section you get a good feel for the delay effect that most of the track has been built on.
Both these tracks are available for peanuts on CD second-hand, along with two other versions of Electronikkaa, and are definitely worth a listen.
P.S. 'Pink Elln' is a joke name, as in German 'pinkeln' means to urinate.
