Achterbahn D'Amour - Odd Movements

  • Share
  • With its melancholic take on squelchy 303s, Acid Test has carved a comfortable niche for itself. Recondite and Tin Man are the sound's most well-known proponents, but the series' backbone is arguably Achterbahn D'Amour, AKA Iron Curtis and Edit Piafra. The duo have released more music on Acid Test than any other artists, and their contributions have been more unpredictable, often folding in homey deep house and off-kilter techno with the resonant synth lines. The aptly-named Odd Movements contains their strangest music yet. Achterbahn D'Amour have a knack for making traditional acid tropes sound novel. Take "Holy Romance Empire," which starts out like a jaunty house number and then drops into a theatrical sci-fi synth passage, before the acid finally comes bursting out. Hollowed-out sonics and transient beats, like the tinny drums on "Teen Sleep" or the sticky groove of "Jaws Of J.O.Y," recall the otherworldly sound design of Actress. These less conventional moments are strung together by the common thread of the 303. Odd Movements covers a lot of ground. It sheds its rhythmic shackles for the submerged title track, where the same lead cycles over and over again in spastic fits. The clubbier numbers, meanwhile, flow in spurts and waves without tracky backbones. All of this unfolds over a surprisingly graceful 46-minutes. The restrained tone keeps things level throughout the album's diversions—at least until you get to "Konigstr," where the duo finally let loose a pithy techno drum track. This is followed by the hazy dreamscape "Cream & Treacle (I&M)," which finishes the album with a ribbon of silk, as if to cushion the landing. This kind balance makes Odd Movements just as ornate as it is ragged—an unassuming techno album that twists and turns in all the right places.
  • Tracklist
      01. Holy Romance Empire 02. Passagen 03. Jaws Of J.O.Y. 04. Ladbroke Culture 05. Odd Movements 06. Teen Sleep 07. My Demands 08. Kongistr 09. Cream & Treacle (I&M)
RA