The Notwist have belatedly made the journey from post punk to post rock electronica. To say they've embraced dance music would be overstating the case, but they have produced a beautiful album of melancholic-electronica (melantronica?) that, like the doughy synth of Silo, stands somewhere on its own.
The basslines still echo the post punk of Joy Division, but more often than not they're settled on crunchy break beats or a laid back, stilted four four. It's an unlikely formula, but it's devastatingly and breathtakingly effective.
The question that haunts the album is not why a post punk rock band should switch to electronica. There are after all hundreds of examples of acts doing this - not least post Joy Division New Order themselves. Rather, what nags is why they should chose to do it so late in the day, as if they've resisted the onslaught of dance music until they could no longer do other than succumb.
But if this really were a last minute, sixth album sell out we would have ended up with a wholesale cash-in, a la Sophie Ellis Bextor. Instead we have a unique and gripping album that sneaks up behind you before it finally catches you in its snare (drum).
It opens with 'One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand', which begins as a guitar ballad, originally thrown of kilter by only the odd uncomfortable, Bjork style mispronunciation. Then your ear is suddenly kidnapped by a sharp wood block, subtly heralding the arrival of the effects division.
From here the music is laced with practically every electronic rhythm innovation from the past thirty years. Yet somehow Markus Acher's soft song writing and singing remains intact. The beauty is that it all sounds completely natural. As if it had always been this way and ever shall be so. The careful and considerate drum production and arrangement comes courtesy of Console, aka Martin Grestchmann, who has crafted a defining moment in the progression of electronic music.
'This Room' weaves a faux indie guitar tune into the stomach churning bass drops and rising snares of a jump up track and bleak Warp inspired electronic sound assaults. 'Solitaire' drops the beats to spluttering and churning downbeat hip hop and perfectly counterparts Acher's fragile but beautiful ode to melancholy and innocence.
'Trashing Days' weaves banjo into the rhythm track, while 'Pilot' features the moodiest of Joy Division basslines, tripping, delayed guitars and an inexplicably joyous drum track that's peppered with the odd dub reggae effect.
'Neon Golden' signifies a remarkable break with The Notwist's past. But it simultaneously emphasises continuity and in itself is a hugely significant album. A unique and beautiful work that will be returned to again and again. Definitely, already, an album of the year.
