Music Review

03 December 2008 06:37 BST

Booka Shade: The Sun & The Neon Light

Get Physical Music, out now.

In a nutshell...

German dance master get serious and quite a lot worse

What's it all about?

A while ago, Germany was literally the trendiest place in the world if you were making sparse electronic music for other DJs and diehard fans in graphic print T-shirts. After knocking out singles Mandarine Girl and Body Language in 2006, Booka Shade became the kings of the Frankfurt scene, making music that was minimal but didn't really take itself as seriously as the stuff Hawtin and Villalobos were putting out.

An album followed, called Movements, but as this was dance music so no one other than reviewers bothered to listen to it all the way through. This was a bit of a shame, as it was alright. Two years down the line, the German sound is a little less cool and Booka Shade are back with their rather po-faced record, The Sun & The Neon Light.

Who's it by?

Booka Shade are Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier, self-styled veterans of the Frankfurt electronic music scene. Before The Sun & The Neon Light, the cut their teeth by producing two of the most famous house-y techno songs of the decade - Mandarine Girl and Body Language. Along the way, they managed to record one of the only listenable DJ-Kicks compilations and founded Get Physical Records with mate M.A.N.D.Y. They've also convinced lots to people to let them remix songs and even made some into tracks which are arguably better than the originals, like Prototype for Rex the Dog and (Just Like We) Breakdown for Hot Chip.

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Movements didn't really win any mainstream awards when it was released – although Resident Advisor did call the tracks Body Language "one of the biggest releases of the year".

The Sun & The Neon Light is nowhere near as good as Movements so it would be a bit of a travesty if it scooped a whole host of accolades. Luckily, there's not much chance of this happening.

What the others say

"Its dancefloor-oriented cuts are laden with hooks, while its reflective moments are saturated with swooning strings." -Alex Macpherson, Guardian

"It's an exercise of endurance and adroitness that is impressive at times, but one that leaves you feeling vaguely dissatisfied and exhausted. One thing is sure: that is not a position best suited for any tangible body movements." - Stephane Girard, Resident Advisor

So is it any good?

Surely one of the cornerstones of a dance music album is that the tracks atually make you want to get up and shake your booty. Booka Shade certainly used to understand this principal and their past efforts attest to the fact they can make tracks that would get the most leaden footed granny gyrating.

But on The Sun & The Neon Light they've gone all serious and a bit down tempo. Suddenly, they sound much less like a cutting-edge German outfit and more like a slightly dodgy Depeche Mode tribute act. There are moments - mostly where there are not vocals – where the old Booka Shade shine through.

Dusty Boots has an interesting hook and driving rhythm that drives the song forward, but even this feels slightly insubstantial and it's hard to imagine it getting a sweaty dancefloor into a lather. Elsewhere, Karma Car, Planetary and Psychameleon are passable if forgettable songs that might get ok remixes somewhere down the line.

The majority of the songs though sound like Merziger and Kammermeier might be trying very hard to make an entire album of tracks that could appear on the next Ministry of Sound summer chill out compilation. The synth lines are always there, but the soul and balls have gone, leaving something empty.

6/10

James Cooper