cyclic defrost december 2004	It's hardly surprising that Michael Zorn's The City's Collapsing (But Not Tonight) is Lux Nigra's best selling title to date, given its remarkably accomplished sound (and a solo debut yet). The only problem is that, having issued such a definitive collection, Zorn now must devise an equally impressive follow-up. He briefly sidestepped that challenge by collaborating with Hans Möller on 2003's Boy Robot release Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle , even if the album sometimes sounds like The City's Collapsing Pt. 2 (Zorn also partners with Thaddi Herrmann in No Sound No Memories and with Mark Engelhardt in Artificial Duck Flavour). In those moments when the Boy Robot album deviates from that signature Zorn style (as in the beatific "The Last Dance"), it suggests promising new directions ripe for exploration on his second solo release. Well, that album has arrived in the form of the forty-five minute All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride and, while it's inarguably a delicious exemplar of digital sound sculpting, it largely perpetuates the first album's sound without advancing radically beyond it (though it does seem to have a more prominent Chain Reaction dimension compared to his debut). Like before, Zorn methodically constructs intricate tracks by adding layers in systematic manner; he eschews gradual fades in place of dynamics that accrue in steps. Zorn's gift for skewering one's sense of time remains: what one presumes to be a given song's downbeat eventually folds inside out as rhythm structures come into gradually clearer focus. Consider the dub-techno opener "Cold & Cuddly" as a representative example. It starts rather unassumingly with tiny electronic quirks laid over a repeating chord and then more layers gradually appear: swizzling hi-hats, dub accents, and glissandi glimmers. It takes mere seconds for one to recognize it as a Zorn track‹and that's good and bad: good in that it indicates a clearly defined personality; bad because it indicates that this new work hews closely to his established sound. In "This Was Supposed To Be The Future," Zorn intertwines clanking electronics with a broiling brew of beat flutter and bass throbs -- an artfully crafted construction but again one not unlike past work, and a similar criticism can be levied against the sleek digi-dub of "Morning News." However, there is also much to applaud, especially when tracks introduce new wrinkles. "City of Industry", for example, sports an acidy base, and its dark, burbling machine music develops into a churning groove unlike any heard before from Zorn. Sweetened by a springy machine riff, "It's Been So Long" is tightly coiled dub-funk that dives deep, while "She Lights A Cigarette And Stops Time" courts a mellower vibe; with its billowing chords, the song nurtures a delicate melancholy that's affecting. There's no disputing the quality of Zorn's All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride, just its occasional habit of recycling Zorn's admittedly high-quality past. ----Ronald Schepper
de:bug #88, dezember 2004	Dub-Elektronika und Dub-Techno ist zu einer zeitlosen Konstante geworden und bietet scheinbar immer noch genug Möglichkeiten aus den endlosen Tiefen der Festplatte die verdrehtesten, weichsten und rämlichsten Flächen und Beats emporsteigen zu lassen. Dementsprechend schickt Michael Zorn einen "All we can do is enjoy the ride" auf einen Ausflug durch neun dubbige Elektronika Gerüste, die manchmal sanft und manchmal düster vor sich hinschunkeln, einen liebevoll in die Arme nehmen, manchmal auch distanziert führen, und einem irgendwie immer sagen möchte, dass es hier um Musik jenseits aller Tendenzen und Entwicklungen geht, eher darum die Zeit anhalten zu wollen und im Moment zu verweilen. Der schönste Tracktitel des Albums macht genau das zum Thema, denn der heißt: "She lights a cigarette and stops time" 4-5/5 ----HL
sonic, december 2004	Under de senaste åren har Michael Zorn ofta åkt tåg mellan hemstaden Berlin och Hamburg. På väg däremellan har han fingrat på datorn och skrivit "All we can do is enjoy the ride", ett album som innehåller mycket information om sig självt redan i titeln. Det är verkligen bara att luta sig tillbaka och åka med. Zorns kompositioner drivs av mörka, mörka beats och dystopisk elektronik. När jag sluter ögonen är det däremot inte bilder av dagens bekväma resande som fladdrar förbi. För att hitta sceneriet till "All we can do is enjoy the ride" måste vi gå tillbaka tvåhundra år, till sotig industrialism och smutsiga banvallar. Albumet håller samma takt som ånglokens drivaxlar, med en tematik som bäst passar i en kolgruva. Det är mycket suggestivt. Zorn arbetar med delikat trum- och basprogrammering och bakar i de muskulösa kompositionerna in melodier som är så subtila att de knappt märks. Omslagsformen visar stålbalkar och stenpelare i strikta geometriska former men någonstans där uppe kan vi se lite av solen skina in. Ä detta är en bild av "All we can do is enjoy the ride", för trots att skivan är den djupa stadsnattens soundtrack finns hela tiden en aning om att något ljusare väntar på andra sidan. 8/10 ----Billy Rimgard
fat bankroll december 2004	Det börjar inget vidare. Något som låter som gammal detroit-techno inleder albumet. Det som möjligen var intressant när genrens ursprungsartister gjorde musiken blir i händerna på Michael Zorn bara hopplöst torrt och daterat. Vid en snabb genomlyssning fortsätter hela skivan i ungefär samma spår, men det är inte riktigt hela sanningen. "All We Can Do is Enjoy the Ride" är tyske Michael Zorns andra fullängdsalbum. Han är kanske mest känd för sitt första album, "The City's Collapsing (But not Tonight)", eller för sina sammarbeten med bl.a. Thaddeus Herrmann från Herrmann & Kleine under namnet No Movement No Sound No Memories. Albumet står på en ganska tydlig grund av allehanda house-element, kanske i synnerhet från den tyska skolan. Ofta rak fyrafjärdedelstakt, visserligen mer fantasifullt än bara en baskagge, med i övrigt repetitivt innehåll. Överhuvudtaget känns hela skivan som om den vore ungefär tio år gammal, både på gott och ont. Om första spåret var ointressant så skärper Zorn sig redan i det andra och låter en fin TB-303:a knorra i baktakt tillsammans med en visserligen rak, men ändå dynamiskt programmerad takt. Det är ungefär här någonstans man börjar känna igen vissa element i musiken från någonstans. Ännu tydligare blir detta i spår tre. Det låter för sjutton som någon av Aphex Twins, eller snarare AFX:s, alster från tidigt nittiotal och detta är faktiskt något som är genomgående för hela skivan. Spår fyra, påpassligt döpt till "This Was Supposed To Be the Future", låter enormt mycket tagen direkt från Future Sound of Londons "Accelerator". Det är även här skivan kryper över gränsen till att vara godkänd. Man kan helt enkelt se den som en smärre hyllning till det tidiga nittiotalets spjutspetsar inom genren. Och med det sagt är det lika bra att nämna skivans bästa spår, "Gone", som inte helt olikt Autechres gamla fina mix av Saint Etiennes "Like a Motorway", komplett med upprepad röstsampling och matematiskt korrekt musik. Även om skivan är hyggligt bra får jag känslan av att alltihop är aningen snabbt påkommet, och kanske lite slarvigt gjort. Inget av spåren fastnar, de passerar bara taktfast förbi som en uppvisning av att Michael Zorn också vet hur man gör elektronisk musik, dock utan att sticka ut. Jag återvänder hellre till alla de gamla hederliga skivorna Zorn försöker låta som. ----Christoffer
meanstreets december 2004	Otherwise known as MICHAEL ZORN, the German artist behind this electronic/dub hybrid is a kindred spirit of acts such as MONOLAKE or BASIC CHANNEL. That should come as no surprise, really - as Zorn shares yet another thing in common with these folks - they all call Berlin home, the techno mecca that seems to give birth to nearly every nascent scene or fledgling producer these days. On this particular album Zorn takes an architectural approach in constructing his beats - smooth surfaces, austere moods and tapered corners predominate, with an ever-present rock-steady bassline underpinning the rhythm. Anyone into electronic music with a futurist bent and dub steppa roots would be well-advised to check this one out. ----Brock Phillips
tesselate december 2004	Michael Zorn's second album rolls into Tesselate HQ and is instantly in the cd rack of the pc and ready to listen. One half of City Centre Offices 'Boy Robot' and holder of the title 'best selling release on Lux Nigra' with his 'The City's collapsing' debut album, this should be a good one. "Cold and cuddly" blips and clicks away like an abandoned gameboy on the midnight streets of Berlin, and manages to grab the attention of the nighttime audio crew who are out in effect. Warm pulses of atmosphere wash over the track, as you are dropped into the location of this tiny plastic maths box, and are forced to soak in the detailed and machined creative skills that run throughout this one. Three a.m. themetune. Crunch smile, acid, bleep, crunch, welcome to "City of Industry". As the track name describes, this one gives off the feeling of busy streets, littered with rubbish and patrolled by cleaner droids, that scuttle in and out of human legs and dodging passing vehicles to attempt to complete their neverending task. Chime like callings manage to escape from the organised detail within, as the squelchy bassline is swelled even more by the simple but calculating beat glossed over the top. "This was supposed to be the future" takes it down to a conversation between two very similar machines, that belt out a cacophony of reversed samples, 8bit beeps and an air of organic warblings, that all swirl together and bask in the glowing light from machine A's eye socket. Quality stuff. "She lights a cigarette and stops time" reminds me of my robot friend who could stop time, I havent seen him for ages. Taking it down low from the beginning, this one gives off an air of class and workmanship, through its warm glowing melodies and crafted beat pattern. The snow, falls from the sky like thin machined smiles that have been dropped from a passing birds claws and scatter to the ground, revealing a underbelly packed with memories that are beginning to escape, this is one for you robotic joyriders out there. "Gone" swarms and conquers very slowly, but is calculated and precise in its mission. Heavy bass thuds, line up next to blips and ticking drumbeats which form to created a futuro style message to everyone in some form of transport at this very moment, whilst "All we can do is enjoy the ride" takes the form of a happy friendly hippo looking character on his way to crazy market. The bass in this one rocks your foundations with its earlobe snapping intensity as the pace of the track takes control, and ricochets Mr Hippohappy all around the gaf, like a pinball full of broken wood and dolphins. This is crazy market remember, cooool stuff. Packed to the gills with licences 'All we can do is enjoy the ride' has the right to take your imagination anywhere it likes. So full of atmospheric atmosphere that even in my semi-tired state working on this review, my brain was awash with such goodness that I was recharged in quick time. Well played Mr Zorn, more excellent stuff. ----Sam Millen
octopus december 2004	Ce nouvel opus signé Michael Zorn est le premier album IDM de 2004 à vraiment pouvoir rivaliser - bien que nettement moins complexe - avec le grand Momentum de Monolake paru en 2003. Alors évidemment on ne boude pas notre plaisir sur l'étendue des 9 morceaux palpitants que renferme ce All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride. De Cold And Cuddly à la basse abyssale déployant une techno ralentie, aquatique, avec ses étranges cris d'animaux marins, au morceau-titre de clôture, magistral de noirceur, Michael Zorn se plaît à élargir sa palette de talents. Celle-ci passe notamment par l'entérinement de toutes les phases de réussite dont recelait son premier album The City's Collapsing (But Not Tonight), et contient de surcroît un large éventail de ses nouvelles compétences et non des moindres. Sur Morning News, véritable rouleau compresseur de digi-dub dark, il opte pour une démarche ludique façon Richard D. James afin de gérer intelligemment son arsenal de nappes sinistres. City Of Industry et son inquiétante rythmique tribale voit le Berlinois pratiquer une descente dans l'enfer mercuriel du Coil période Black Light District. Histoire de ramener sa musique chez les vivants, il injecte à la structure rythmique étouffante de This Was Supposed To Be The Future, un funk amoindri. Pour finir, Gone s'essaie avec majesté à l'électronique pastorale lors d'un long climax bucolique. Au final, on peut voir cet album comme une sorte d'hybridation réussie des travaux publiés par Chain Reaction et Schematic. ----Frédéric Foreau
speakers push the air january 2005	The cover of Michael Zorn's second solo album, All We Can Do is Enjoy the Ride (Lux Nigra), is a computer generated panegyric to our increasing reliance on motorcars in keeping society ticking. Looking up through a web of pillars and underpasses the distant sun is almost obscured by the concrete we have assembled to allow us to sit in traffic jams for 22 hours a day whilst being reduced to a soporific state as Ashlee Simpson vomits from the radio inside our metal wombs. Alternatively, you could view the cover as a CAD wet-dream rendering of one of those (invariably male) 'Jump' urban monkeys, so beloved of Channel 4's documentary department, who clamber and leap around European cities. Try it in America and they'd be shot. Whilst bouncing over rooftops looks quite impressive and diverting for 15 minutes or so you do soon come to loathe them all in their baggy urbanite uniforms, spouting cod-philosophical bollocks that would make even George Lucas blush in an attempt to justify what they're doing. You're climbing things and titting about! No more, no less -- so stop trying to pretend it's anything other than a way to avoid sitting in an office or a means to impress girls. Thankfully the music contained behind the cover is unlikely to bring images of either petroleum choked vistas or grown men playing hopscotch to mind. Michael Zorn is one of those gallingly prolific artists who manage to put out solo work such as this whilst maintaining a bigamous recording relationship with numerous partners and labels. As a consistent element in Berlin's dub-styled techno circles, Zorn has released material as part of numerous duos including 'Boy Robot' (City Centre Offices) with Hans Möller, 'No Movement No Sound No Memories' with Thaddi Herrmann and 'Artificial Duck Flavour' with Mark Engelhardt (both Lux Nigra). Zorn's previous solo album The City's Collapsing remains the bestselling title on Lux Nigra and as such expectations are high for All We Can Do is Enjoy the Ride. Produced between 2002 and 2004, All We Can DoŠ is a digital-drenched reading of more traditional German dub that proudly displays its Pole and Other People Place influences throughout. The album opens with 'Cold and Cuddly', a brooding and overcast mix of murky bass and pulsing synths which are brought to life through a delicately chiming childlike melody picking its way through the fog. For all its menace there is something unarguably appealing about the way in which Zorn coaxes such a limited palate into a satisfying whole, exuding a multitude of often contradictory emotions whilst allowing the track time to develop in a way which seems entirely natural. After the claustrophobia of 'Cold and Cuddly' things move on to 'Morning News', probably the most overtly recognizable Zorn production on the album, miring roughly hewn bass with an intricately plotted series of digital machinations bringing to mind a similar spirit to early LFO. Using dissonant chord structures and crisply layered beats, Zorn permits the throbbing waves of bass to dictate the direction in which the music moves, building gently to an uncontrived peak before slowly relaxing back towards a languid conclusion. Zorn's ability to give an impression of unpremeditated machine music is one of his resounding talents and probably displayed most consummately on 'City of Industry' and 'This Was Supposed to be the Future'. Cross breeding German digital dub with the type of electronica associated with Skam and Spezialmaterial, 'City of Industry' diverts your eye from the pounding beat by allowing clutches of strings to puncture the surface sporadically whilst 'This Was Supposed to be the Future' takes Boards of Canada melodies and thrashes them with some of the most finely tuned percussive styling this side of a Scottish marching band. Elsewhere 'It's Been So Long' will have you checking your bass levels as the fragmented beats are splintered by the brobdingnagian lower end, whilst the title track is an impatient fidgeting slice of layered electronic accumulations which borrows its architecture from Plastikman but revels in a sound all of its own. As an album closer it's spot on, leaving you with agitated melodies and pulsing bass ringing in your ears and, as the album title predicts, ready to enjoy the ride again and again. ----Adam Park
black # 38, januar 2005	ZORN legt sich diesmal wie ein sommerwarmer Sprühregen über die Sinne. Seine dubbige Electronica nieselt sanft auf die majestätisch-elegischen Flächen. Sie bekommt erst mehr Drall, wenn sie die Ablaufrinnen der Rhythmen hinabpurzelt und im freien Fall beschleunigt auf die klacksenden Soundspielereien platscht. Die warme Dubstimmung wird vom Schluckauf technoider Klangbastelei konterkariert. Alles etwas kleinteiliger als gewohnt. Erst im Mosaik der eingesprenkelten Sounds wird die große Geste erkennbar. Die anmelancholisierte Schwere unbeschwerter Leichtigkeit. Was für ein pathetisch nichtssagender Wortbrocken. Aber trifft's. ZORN ist Instant-Entrückung mit Substanz. Da pulsiert der Beat und kann der Groove noch gefasst werden. Es ist nicht alles luftiges Elektronikgespinst. Da herrscht noch genug Gravitation, um wirklich mit dem Kopf mitwippen zu können. Tja, all we can do is enjoy the ride eben. ----T (TM)
groove #91, november/dezember 2004	Michael Zorn interpretiert mit "All we can do is enjoy the ride" nicht nur im Titel seine Interpretation des etwas betagten "No Future" vergangener Generationen, sondern verströmt auch in seinen wuchtigen Dub-Sounds eine ähnlich kraftvolle Energie, für die Punk einst vielleicht mal gestanden hat. Weitaus weniger melodisch als auf dem sehr schönen Vorgänger "The city's collapsing (but not nonight)" gehen die neun neuen Tracks zur Sache, die sich irgendwo zwischen der abgrundtief verhallten Soundverliebtheit eines Monolake und den dunkleren Momenten von Boards of Canada breit machen und kraft ihrer vertrackten Rhythmik doch immer einen wunderbar swingenden Groove entfalten. Das spielt mit einer industriellen, leicht nostalgischen Ästhetik und drückt ob seiner omnipräsenten Schwere manchem vielleicht auch etwas auf's Gemüt. Das funktioniert nicht als Klangtapete zum Frühstück sondern wirkt vor allem bei lautem Hören schlüssig bis ins letzte Bit und macht auch vor den Tracktiteln wie "City of industry" oder "This was supposed to be the future" nicht halt. Klasse Album auf jeden Fall, wobei aber ein paar optimistischere Untertöne gewiss nicht geschadet hätten. ----SD
basebog #06, january 2005	Oddio un bellissimo disco!! Di questi tempi non ci si spera quasi più. E' un po' di tempo che mi riscopro terribilmente delusa dai dischi che mi capita di ascoltare, spesso mi rendo conto che ci si accontenta anche di cose mediocri perché la qualità media delle uscite è oggi talmente bassa che le cose 'medie' ci fanno urlare al miracolo. Non penso di esagerare. Insomma, è triste che vengano fuori così tanti brutti dischi: è triste soprattutto perché quando poi salta fuori un disco molto bello come questo secondo lavoro di Michael Zorn, il rischio è che se ne perda traccia nel marasma di uscite insensate in cui siamo immersi ogni settimana. In questo caso poi va ancora peggio poich&eactue; questo Signor Disco non ha distribuzione nel nostro paese (almeno mi pare), quindi a meno che non siate voi curiosi per natura, 'All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride' non verrà da voi, sarete voi che dovrete arrivare a lui. E io, cari estimatori di buona elettronica, provo a darvi qualche informazione utile (so che suona presuntuoso ma non lo è, giuro!). Dunque, Lux Nigra prima di tutto: già qui la prima ingiustizia, dato che questa buona etichetta berlinese è quasi sconosciuta (immeritatamente) ai più, e se non fosse proprio per il primo lavoro di Zorn ('The City's Collapsing...'), il quale ha venduto un buon numero di copie, forse se la passerebbe anche peggio. Eppure, per chiunque si dica bravo conoscitore ed estimatore del sound berlinese non può e non deve prescindere dalla Lux Nigra, che ha una dignità pari a quella di altri marchi famosi come Basic Channel, Scape, Morr Music e City Centre Offices. Zorn, spesso ingenuamente confuso con John Zorn, fa invece Michael di nome: berlinese verace, graphic designer (autore di numerose copertine per la Lux Nigra e la City Centre Offices), metà cuore del progetto Boy Robot che tanta risonanza ha avuto nel 2003 con il bel 'Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle', e tenutario del progetto Zorn appunto. 'All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride' è il suo secondo lavoro in proprio e sebbene resti parente stretto del primo disco, i passi in avanti qui sono innumerevoli al punto che non riesco a spiegarmi come alcuni critici abbiano potuto dire che pur essendo questo un buon disco, non rappresenta nulla di nuovo rispetto al precedente. No! Non sono per niente d'accordo, perché se l'impronta è rimasta, se ritroviamo quei vasti soundscape in cui complessità ritmica e melodia si combinano secondo modi singolari e inconfondibilmente 'zorniani', in questo secondo lavoro si delinea con più forza una visione personale che si è definitivamente lasciata alle spalle certe ingenuità o cliché idm del passato e soprattutto si avvertono chiaramente gli enormi progressi nella produzione e nel sound design. Già le tracce iniziali, 'Cold and Cuddly' e 'Morning News', segnano uno scarto rispetto al precedente lavoro, perché se la matrice dub e una melodia carica di mistero e malinconia ci riporta The City's Collapsing alla memoria, l'orecchio coglie subito anche la diversità che sta soprattutto nella rotondità del suono, nella sua profondità e completezza, che prima non c'erano assolutamente. Magari Zorn ancora non riesce (forse non ci arriverà mai) ad arrivare alla quadratura del cerchio come quei mostri sacri della Basic Channel, ma la qualità si è elevata parecchio e certamente non è assurdo accostare questo nuovo Zorn alla gente della Chain Reaction o della Imbalance. Ma è il terzo pezzo a spiazzare sul serio: in 'City of Industry' Zorn fa bella mostra di complesse e articolate intricatezze ritmiche su cui un cupo basso digitale tuona nervosamente intrecciandosi con sciabordate di synth sci-fi di detroitiana memoria. E c'è anche un certo feeling 'acido' che prima mancava del tutto. Come se Monolake, Afx e Detroit si incrociassero per un attimo. E' questo 'digital sound sculpting', con strati e strati che si aggiungono e si sovrappongono continuamente, che costituisce la novità più eclatante del nuovo lavoro, qualcosa che lo avvicina a 'Momentum' di Monolake (pur non essendo Zorn ­ almeno non ancora - un regista altrettanto eccellente). Le tracce successive sono ulteriore sviluppo di quanto descritto sopra e il disco (vero e proprio concept album sulla città) scorre instaurando un'atmosfera tutta sua, che è quella di una Berlino notturna, cupa, fredda, spesso austera e spettrale nel paesaggio di gru, macerie e acciaio dei suoi cantieri, comunque sempre affascinante e incantevole (m'è preso lo spleen! sigh...). Non capita spesso di potersi fare 'cavalcate' davvero così interessanti e emozionanti. Perciò... enjoy the ride! Tanto è quello che ci resta da fare... ----Federica Linke
kansai time out #336, february 2005	Berlin-based, techno-dub operator Michael Zorn turns in his second CD here, with plenty of moody, late-night urban glitches and ripples to keep the sound on edge. ----Dominic Al-Badri, John Potter & Brad Quinn
intro #112, march 2005	Zorn verscheucht den Zauber aus der Stadt und macht sie klingen, wie sie ist: kühl. Sequenzerspur und Trackline als sich monströs verzweigender, entvölkerter Highway - das Cover von >All we can do is enjoy the ride< bildet die Stimmung der Stunde treffend ab. Sind wir nicht alle hin und wieder ratlos? Ähnlich wie bei Michael Zorns Debütalbum >The city's collapsing (but not tonight)< treiben auch hier gegen den Strich driftende Rhythms ihr Spiel mit dem Hörer, am ausgefeiltesten bei >This was supposed to be the future<, das verzwirbelte IDM-Drums englischer Schule mit verträumten Klavierwolken zusammenbringt. Superelegant technoid fliessende Poesie auch bei >She lights a cigarette and stops time<, einem der vielen großen Tracks auf diesem Album, das nicht ohne Grund drei Jahre in the making war. Weil Lux Nigra ein Label ist, das seine Artists immer in Richtung Entscheidung und Essenz drängt, fällt Zorns neues Album dunkler aus als sein euphorisch pulsierender Vorgänger. Und auf spezielle Weise ausgeruht: Die charakteristischen Elemente zornscher Komposition ­ Flächen, die in selbst zu definierende Unendlichkeiten weisen, konterkariert durch industrial-geerdete rhythmische Wuchtigkeit - werden auch auf >All we can do is enjoy the ride< in unstoppbar groovige Zustände versetzt (niemand kann diesen Gegensatz rocken wie Zorn), aber mit so viel Weite dazwischen, dass man manchmal ins Frösteln gerät. Wenn es eine Platte gibt, die zeigt, dass Berliner Elektronik nicht immer warmherzig ist, dann diese. ----Hendrik Kröz
barcode online, february 2005	Second solo album from berlin-born Zorn, 2 years in the making. All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride is a heavily rhythmic road album, perfect for those long journeys. The trend it set on track two, Morning News, as a solid groove lays foundation to mechanical electronics that deliver a compellingly fluid motion, not unlike the incessant drive that a multitude of gears and cogs might produce in a well oiled sports car. This Was Supposed To Be The Future is also beautifully produced, and will appeal to anyone that loves machine music at its purest, as sublime keyboard melodies shimmer around the pristine beauty of Zorn's intricately perfunctory programming. Only the Techno genre could ever truly hope to play host to this sort of starkly futuristic, impassive combination of motorised rhythms ­ and She Lights A Cigarette And Stops Time literally reeks of all those Techno sensibilities we hold dear, and have somehow come to miss during its subdued absence. However, melody is sparse. It flickers in the background but rarely provides the grip required to prevent this album sounding anything other than stunningly emotionless, although not characterless. Only Gone seems to inject a sense of sensation, with its neon glow sparked by a female vocal sample that drifts through the ethereal steam of its light background synths. This may well appeal to the electro purest in you. ----Anonymous
electronique online, february 2005	La Berlinese "Lux Nigra" è un'etichetta discografica che dal 1998 è fortemente impegnata nella diffusione di materiale sonoro elettronico di altissima qualità. Le loro produzioni variano dall'IDM pura all'electro, techno, ambient ed anche qualcosina più industrial breakcore, come nel caso delle produzioni targate "Multipara". Questa nuova release è firmata da Michael Zorn, forse uno dei più presenti artisti dell'etichetta, e può rappresentare tranquillamente lo stile stesso della "Lux Nigra". Una produzione elettronica dai tratti molto scuri e complicati, perfetta musica per la mente, composta da ritmiche spezzate molto ricercate formate da bassi abbastanza ampi ed altri microsuoni ritmici molto densi. Le varie melodie che si susseguono hanno chiaramente un background ambient, che combinato con la freneticità delle battute spezzate rende fluidissimo il lavoro. La quantità mista a qualità di suoni utilizzati rende ancor più piacevole l'ascolto, che potrà senza dubbio causare gravi disagi mentali alle persone meno accorte. Tra i grandi pregi di questo album c'è da sottolineare sicuramente quello di offrire tappeti sonori quantomai ricercati, come nel caso della traccia numero 6 "She Lights A Cigarette And Stops Time" o nella più spaziale ed eterea "Gone". Per il resto, o meglio per quelli che sanno in quale direzione trasportare la mente durante l'ascolto di un disco, potrete immergervi in quella che sarà una delle probabili notti del vostro futuro. Buon ascolto P.S. Oltre ad essere un ottimo produttore musicale Michael Zorn è anche un affermato grafico e lavora per una prestigiosa agenzia tedesca: la Artificial Duck Flavour di cui vi ho postato il link sopra e la suggestiva cover del suo disco ` naturalmente a sua firma. ----liquid
xlr8r, march 2005	With a page taken straight out of Detroit's Octave One and Planet E's books, and tempered with a healthy dash of opiate visions, Berlin's Zorn conjures up a beautiful, melancholic futurescape. Rather than showcasing a diversity of styles, the album feels like one long, continuous track - a very tasteful, well-conceived track that never gets boring or stale. Because of this, it's hard to pick out highlights, but both the ultra-obtuse "Gone" and the moody "City of Industry" struck a chord somewhere very deep inside me. Pick this up if you're a fan of ambient/dubby techno or Vangelis. ----Alex Posell
gaz-eta march 2005	Drugi album brytyjskiego producenta Michaela Zorna dla wytwórni Lux Nigra jest intrygujaca kontynuacja jego poprzedniej plyty - "The City's Collapsing (But Not Tonight)" z 2001 r. Podobnie, jak tam, mamy tu do czynienia z bardzo gleboko emocjonalna elektronika. Mimo gestej faktury nagran, tworzonej przez zimne dzwieki syntezatorów i statyczne tla, artyscie udalo sie przemycic duzo pieknych melodii - przejmujaco melancholijnych ("Cold And Cuddly"), momentami ponurych ("Morning News") i groznych ("City Of Industry"), a kiedy indziej - slodko rozleniwionych ("She Lights A Cigarette And Stops Time") i naiwnie bajkowych ("It's Been So Long"). Najczesciej wnosza je pojedyncze akordy klawiszy, przypominajace swym brzmieniem lekko przesterowany fortepian ("This Was Suppose To Be The Future", "Multiple Choices", "Gone"). W nowych nagraniach wiecej jest jednak mroku i smutku, o wiele rzadziej pojawiaja sie jasne i przestrzenne dzwieki, ot, chocby tak czesto stosowane w starszych utworach artysty dubowe glebie - tutaj obecne tylko w "She Lights A Cigarette And Stops Time". W konsekwencji na pierwszy plan wysuwaja sie struktury rytmiczne - wzmocnione basowymi pomrukami ("Cold And Cuddly"), przeradzajace sie w ciezka bombardierke ("City Of Industry"), bliskie plemiennemu bebnieniu ("This Was Suppose To be The Future") lub mechanicznym konstrukcjom o industrialnym rodowodzie ("Multiple Choices", "All We Can Do Is Enjoy The Ride"). Sluchacz z trudem przedziera sie przez te gestwine dzwieków, z radoscia docierajac jednak raz za razem do cudownych melodii. Konstrukcja poszczególnych utworów Zorna przypomina puzzle. Kiedy wszystkie ich elementy uloza sie w naszym umysle w logiczna calosc - nastepuje olsnienie ich pieknem i oryginalnoscia. ----Pawel Gzyl
dusted magazine march 2005	Who knows where electronica is at these days ­ geeks in bedrooms? Laptop warriors? Sound art? The term "electronica" is problematic, an umbrella designation which says little about the diversity of production that goes on underneath the banner. It's electronic in design, then. That's hardly revelatory. It would, however, be hard to convincingly argue that electronica has maintained its relevance in the early 21st century: that the bold moves made in the 1990s by Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, Oval, Autechre and so on haven't calcified and fossilized, with electronica reduced to a set of empty gestures. Lacking physicality, socio-political resonance and sheer use value, electronica's pseudo-abstract finger-painting lacks any real point beyond the worthless play of home indulgence. All we can do is enjoy the ride is an eloquent set of electronica that pulls a few signature sounds together and tries to essay coherence and coldly beauty from its chosen building blocks. Like a good swathe of home-listening electronic music it's indebted to Autechreąs sudden cognitive shifts and timbral distortions; Zorn also calls upon the ambivalent, pulsing dub-scapes of the Chain Reaction and &slm;scape labels. That doesn't exactly position Zorn in an under-populated field, and All we can do is enjoy the ride never quite justifies its existence. And in a world buckling under the strain of way too much music, 99.9% of which you could never hope to hear in your lifetime... Zorn does have a knack for a certain elegance of production, and his short pieces brim and bristle with texture and incident. "City of Industry", riding a faintly virulent, distorted bass-line and weightless wafts of foreboding circuitry hum, evokes the steely-grey, stentorian climes of Polygon Window's Surfing on Sine Waves. But All we can do is enjoy the ride, though well-rendered, fails to distinguish itself from the mass of similar recordings doing the rounds. ----Jon Dale
e/i magazine january 2006	Parallel to releases on Delsin and Peacefrog, Michael Zorn has consistently evolved over time, like a collapsed Pacific Ocean cliff side over centuries of erosion. All we can do is enjoy the ride takes a moderate step forward by taking several leaps through the past. Detroit-influenced electro-techno can't be ignored here, the use of rhythmic ambient synth washes brushed over polished beats (as featured on "Gone" and "Multiple choices") are both casual and nostalgic enough that fans of CiM and earlier Maps & Diagrams would certainly preen over. Having previously recorded for Expanding, City Centre Offices and K2O, it's not surprise that Zorn's sigranture use of danceable, lounge-style grooves would continue on this release. On "City of industry," however, Zorn treads into Aphex Twin territory with pulsating percussion and exquisite melody hooks that are quite memorable - the overall sinister feel of this track alone is a welcomed entrance to the varied sounds of Zorn's latest work. Both "Cold and cuddly" and "She lights a cigarette and stops time" introduce warm fragrances of Berlin-style techno, blending layers of ambience and mechanical backdrops of fluid audio debris. "This was supposed to be the future" offers a funky bassbeat that continually stretches alongside gorgeous piano extracts; it's a track that dives several miles ahead of its counterparts by utilizing glitched fractures in the most harmonious fashion. While All we can do is enjoy the ride aptly derives itself based on the title alone, Zorn has established a connection between two distinct styles - Detroit vs. Berlin - gradually realizing that the voyage is as important as the vehicle used to get there. ----Pietro da Sacco
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