PRICE:
$15.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
General Eclectics
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
STRIKE 118CD STRIKE 118CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
9/14/2010

With the release of his fourth album, General Eclectics, Thomas Brinkmann breathes new life into his stellar side project Soul Center. Don't be misled by the album's title, though. Taken literally, General Eclectics will lead you astray not once, but twice. While the cover might allude to local noise merchants Einstürzende Neubauten's infamous Haus Der Lüge sleeve and Paolo Uccello's horse's rear, the album's inner sleeve is covered in maps, footballs, cigarette butts, priests, etc., each replete with their own rich history. Take the ashtray, for example: a work of art in itself that is both light-hearted and laden with meaning. It is Brinkmann's sense of appropriation (the eclectic side of things) and his interpretation of art/music/image/sound, that provides the red thread to connect the individual parts -- and concept -- of this album. Unlike Soul Center's previous works, the featured music is almost entirely devoid of samples and returns to a deep melange of techno's richer funk and soul flavors -- from the album's slowed-down opener, "Marmelade," right up to the final hands-in-the-air stomper "Dyr Bul Scyl." For this album, only two tracks include significant vocal usage and this time, the artist underlines the background of the lyrics. Aleksei Kruchenykh and Vladimir Majakovsky are two of the main writers of the Russian futurism of the 1920s. And we all need some more Russian futurism these days.