SANKT OTTEN

German duo Sankt Otten's, 2011, "Gottes Synthesizer", is full of attractive ideas. Some elegant Pop-synth sounds combined with close to Prog electronics, some obscure and menacing atmospheres counterpointed with bright melodic lines or the other way around, some relaxed cosmic moments which by contrast enrich this release's directions. As such, in paper, this all seems captivating.

Now, the not so good news. Even though the songs (there are 13), are original in their stylistic musical language and the music itself would not offend your ears, the creative ideas stay short of their possible development and lack the explosive substance to launch all of their splendors and tranform themselves into something groundbreaking or truly memorable.

The prime matter is there and maybe a little twist and turn in the mixture of those ideas into single compositions and not single ones for each song, will have turned a bit more daring in its songwriting and experimentations and would have brought, probably, a less comfortable and clean cut result for a far more ambitious and explosive goal.

Nevertheless, "Gottes Synthesizer" has its amazing peaks and moments, but they are not all over this release.

***3.5 PA stars.

The simplistic nature of Kraftwerk's structures, tutored by the deep dynamic multi moods of TD's 70's cosmic electronics plus the less art more audiences approach of Alan Parsons' could be three quick references to describe this Sankt Otten - "Engtanz Depression", 2015.

But the child turned out to be quiet gifted when it came to song writing and the apple really did fell quiet apart from its trees. And that is what makes this "salad bowl" of influences so thrilling.

So expect a balanced blend of musical influences, detailed with "modern electronic" stylings, constructed with rich and hypnotic, sometimes slow paced trance like , others raw and obscure, others brighter and robotic, others purely "cosmic" environments, threaded along with attractive and creative (unlike Kraftwerk's) melody lines that provide the Sankt Otten seal to each piece.

Surprisingly addictive ****4 PA stars.