LOUDERBACH AUTUMN MINUS76 CD, 2x12?, WAV, MP3 Minus has released a first rate selection of home grown artist albums over the past 18 months, with Heartthrob, False and Gaiser all creating long players of real substance and this trend is set to continue in 2009 with arguably the label?s most significant release of recent times. Louderbach?s long awaited second album Autumn represents another jump in the evolutionary cycle of minimal techno, having developed from the largely instrumental project that gave us Enemy Love into a fully-fledged song based outfit. As a result, Autumn has a much deeper feel than its predecessor and indeed breaks new ground, with the dark metaphors of Gibby Miller?s often chilling vocal performances fitting hand-in-glove with the ominous landscapes and broken architecture that Troy Pierce constructs so effectively. Drawing on shared influences such as Bauhaus, Coil and Joy Division, the duo have conceived an album of emotional depth and exquisite detail, appropriating the best elements of these early-eighties pioneers and reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens to achieve a perfect balance of style and content. It?s the result of an unspoken understanding that spans thousands of miles from their respective homes in L.A. and Berlin and this distant intimacy is a naturally occurring theme throughout the album, manifesting itself as dark, twilight tales of melancholy romance, burning obsession and the slow, disintegration of desire. Rolling in on waves of icy pads, the languid tones of Autumn pulse and swirl before Miller?s voice rips through the shadows - dropping solitary words like stones into a murky pool and sending shock waves out across the surface, into the inky blackness and beyond. The echo returns as Seems Like Static opens with a seductive, atmospheric chord progression. The mood is abruptly broken by a booming 808 kick and Miller?s claustrophobic vocals slowly begin to unravel. The percussive elements build with Pierce emphasising selected passages with peripheral effects that, together with the vivid lyrical imagery, create a cinematic quality that?s inherent throughout the whole album. The pummelling electro beats and heavy compression of One Hundred Reasons continue the decent that dominates the album?s opening stages. Played out against a wall of feverish analogue noise, the constant throb is gradually overwhelmed by a gnarly, twisting synth line that?s as seductive as it is lethal. Notes taps back into the dangerously obsessive theme of love as sickness that plays heavy on Miller?s mind throughout. The beats are flying by this point while the metallic percussion riff that warps and dances around the vocals, adds new layers of intensity to the shifting groove. Reminiscent of The The?s angst driven mantras, Notes? glitchy insomnia, complete with ambient street sounds, perfectly reflects the symptoms of modern, urban isolationism. Nothing More Than A White Poison is another dancefloororiented cut with the sliced-up vocals adopting a more soulful approach over a twisted acid line and some tough, regimented drum programming. The increasingly risque vocals eventually drift into self-parody as the track intensifies amid a flurry of claps and sliding hi-hat sequences. Touching eight minutes, She is the longest track on the album and fully deserves its epic status. With an elongated intro once again punctuated by booming 808s, it exists in a state of weightlessness, twisting and turning while the dreamlike vocals surf waves of hiss and static. Percussive elements slowly crystallise around the powerful, central bass motif as the whispered vocals shift from light to dark, throwing up a host of delicate and disturbing images that compliment the controlled menace of the fuzzy, metal synth that prowls the outskirts. One of the most inspired melodies on the album belongs to So This Is Control. Accompanied by a more laid back, housey groove and culminating in a high velocity breakdown, the vocals reproduce the innocent instructions of a photo shoot but Miller?s delivery turns them into something far more ambiguous and suggestive. As the album drifts towards its conclusion, the sci-fi spirals of Sunspots momentarily return to the brooding electro of the first LP. The skeletal design ebbs and flows with bass heavy growls, reverberating bleeps and a frozen melody that gradually emerges from the neon fog before drifting back out to sea. Shine signs off in reflective fashion, playing out across another loose fitting arrangement full of dark, low-end melodies, slivers of glistening hi-hats and heavily modulated analogue layers. The vocals, still rich in metaphor remain restless yet resilient to the end as the sustained minor chord of the lead-out gradually breaks up, signalling the end of Autumn - an album that grips the attention with smouldering intensity from start to finish. RELEASE INFORMATION: Artist/Title: LOUDERBACH | AUTUMN Catalogue No.: MINUS76 Label: MINUS Format: CD, 2x12?, MP3, WAV Distribution: Wordandsound / MDM / Beatport / M-nus.com Barcode CD: 881390717620 Release Date: April 24th, 2009 Track Listiing: CD 1. Autumn ? 3:29 2. Seems Like Static ? 6:21 3. One Hundred Reasons ? 4:25 4. Notes ? 5:01 5. Nothing More Than A White Poison ? 6:31 6. She ? 7:58 7. So This Is Control ? 5:39 8. Sunspots ? 6:34 9. Shine ? 5:40