Alex Bau – Musick

Metallic and brazen. Sharp and sophisticated. Bold and uncompromising.

These are just a few words that summarise the latest album from German-native Alex Bau. Brimming with an exciting blend of big-room techno and spaced-out sonics, ‘Musick’ joins a plethora of personal outings already released under his own label Credo.

The album opens with ‘Voise Over’, a slow burner which urges its audience to listen closer. Rough modular-sounding experimentations are swallowed by subtle bass stabs, setting the tone for tracks such as ‘Ringlebell’ and ‘Pulse’. Momentum gathers relatively quickly, however, and by the third track, we are already beginning to notice the complex musings of a dance floor compétent.

This is not to say the album is lacking variation. In fact, quite the opposite.

The arrangement, not only of each track but also of the album as a whole, allows the listener to revel in both Bau’s comprehensive and conceptual abilities.

‘Voise Pt. I’ is the title-track, a total and expertly complete club track, incorporating a sound so often found in techno long players of this stature.‘Voise Pt. II’, a reinterpretation of the part one, begins as a beatless elucidation of its sister track, slowly evolving into a rich and demanding collage of resonance and reverberation.

A driving force which occasionally allows us to stop for air, Alex Bau’s ‘Musick’ is a wonderfully balanced piece which will be released through Credo on 22nd April.