Description
Dutch electro music producer Legowelt releases Ruins Of Cracktopolis on the popular Belgian label Altered Circuits! A techno-electro record that lets you directly feel the intense developments and synth/machine sounds!
Dutch electro music
Ruins Of Cracktopolis, delivered by Danny Wolfers under the name Legowelt to Altered Circuits after two years. Described by the artist himself as "hymns to survive the dystopian circus of today's techno scene," this work features a diverse set of tracks that can be enjoyed both in the club and at home.
The opening "Do You Know Who You Never Be" features a short staccato lead and dark chords revolving around a heavy kick drum, while mysterious vocoders and intensely twisted laser sequences add to the intricate rhythm. The following "In A Trance Dance All Night" intertwines popping 303 lines with powerful drums, unfolding into an eighties-inspired synth jam. Reverb-drenched pads and vocals drift like rising mist, creating a fantastical world.
The vintage Dutch West Coast feel pervading the entire album, along with rhythms that alternate between 4/4 and broken beats, creates changes in tempo while maintaining consistency through Wolfers' characteristic melodic elements. Although he is known as a synth enthusiast, this work feels as though the equipment does not control him, but rather that he is teaching the machines his own vision of electronic music.
Packed with four tracks that can be enjoyed both in the club and at home, this album is a masterpiece that allows you to fully appreciate his musical individuality.
A1. Do You Know Who You Never Be
A2. In A Trance Dance All Night
B1. Ruins Of Cracktropolis
B2. Like Twin Peaks
Two years after the release of the Polarius EP Inner Voices Of A Clown, Danny Wolfers returns to Altered Circuits, this time under his best-known alias Legowelt, for Ruins Of Cracktopolis: a collection of "hymns to survive the dystopian circus of today's techno scene" in the artist's own words. On Do You Know Who You Never Be, a short staccato lead and dark chords revolve around a monolithic kick drum pattern that takes care of the cadence and bass. A mysterious vocoder and a laser sequence that gets torn and twisted to the max join, but the track never loses its steady pace - it gets help from shakers so much mixed to the front they could be lifted from a B'more track. Amidst the effervescing 303 lines and bold drum sequences of In A Trance Dance All Night" Wolfers finds a canvas for a stretched synthesizer jam with eighties breaking allure. This melody, together with the pads and vocal, are drenched in reverb - they float like mist ascending from the The Hague dunes. Throughout Ruins Of Cracktopolis, more vintage Dutch West Coast, the hiss-laden broken beat that guides the bass sequences and ominous blippy synth patterns switches to a 4/4 structure and back. These make for captivating shifts in pace while the minor progressions continue unfolding. Like Twin Peaks targets prime energy once the arpeggiator sequence present from the start lowers an octave. The track runs smooth like a pomade slick-back; it's only tempered slightly when the crunchy kick and tom change place for a moody chord sequence break. Even if these four tracks target the club, they are equally suited for - quoting Wolfers again - "leisurely home listening". Their greatest strengths are, as so often, their melodic aspects. The artist is known to be a synthesizer aficionado, but his unique personal touch immediately shines through no matter which gear he works with. The machines never seem to dominate the composing process; quite the opposite: it's as if he isn't programming or registering as much as trying to teach them his take on electronic music.
