Search - Sunset Yellow :: After Sunset

Techno Grows Up

Samuel Richmond | Vancouver, BC, Canada | 01/23/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Marketed under a myriad of names ("acid house," "ambient," "dub," "trance," et alia) reflecting small nuances of style and procedure, techno has developed essentially in parallel unbroken lines since the mid-seventies advent of Germany's Kraftwerk and the US's Afro-Cuban-influenced disco offshoots. Add to this the broodingly stoical influence of Steve Reich and the clinical facility of digital sampling, and what you most often wind up with is imploringly superficial dance music, cybersalsa in dire need of a sense of humor.Danish ensemble Sunset Yellow adds welcome leavening to the mix. Their debut CD showcases six compositions, three with alternative remixes, as intelligently constructed as they are resigned to their own superficiality. From the static yet graceful undulations of the title track's vocal line to the haunted whimsy of the unavailingly titled "This Is Jazz," these tastefully sampled clubland meditations flatter the ear.Standouts include the surprising poetry of the air traffic controller lullaby "Unknown (Go Ahead)" and the darkly quavered chromatic menace of "Agent Yellow," as effective an evocation of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" as one could wish in its chiaroscuro of postindustrial dread. Unlike the majority of techno artists, Sunset Yellow have learned their Reichian lessons well.The only diverting weakness here is the same equal temperament problem encountered in much sample-based instrumental music, where figural combinations in tune with one another are sometimes noticeably out of tune with the ensemble as a whole-- especially telling in a genre built on terraced climaxes.The overall success of this album bodes well for the emotional liberation of techno. Club/trance/dub music may have a ways yet to travel before it arrives at the "house" of imagination, but in the meantime the dial tone habaneras and eerie dove calls of "After Sunset" will do just fine."