Within the electronic music scene, JENS-UWE BEYER’s new album SURROUNDED BY WEATHER is considered a flamboyant sound experience. It is an impressive combination of traditional instruments, song structures and Techno tools. Reference points may be located between House-not-House (2012, Love), Avant-Pop (Touch, ID Cart, The Smallest Part) and a new feeling for Krautrock or Glam Pop - once created by LA DÜSSELDORF - with tendency toward experimental, rather improvised compositions on the one side, and extended, instrumental and monotonous dance-floor tracks on the other side (Perspective, Crack). A very personal touch is added by using his own, pure and non-processed voice or vocals thus creating, supporting, accompanying and representing the different moods of the album. JENS-UWE BEYER started working on this new album immediately after his debut album WHITE ALBUM in 2007. First, he created rough demo versions which he later refined and elaborated in the legendary former EMI studio in Cologne. The album starts with the track 2012 and wonderful vocal harmonies à la BEACH BOYS or RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - and later turns into a deep dancefloor track with a cosy house beat and deep, disharmonic strings. The track TOUCH is the first single release taken from the album (incl. remixes made by THE FIELD and TENNISHERO) and represents probably the most intense tendency toward Pop music with its soft guitar sounds, a laid-back beat and a vocal hook line. The kick drum sound of ID CARD refers to almost 10 years of Cologne Techno history. Its 4-to-the-floor rhythm structure is delicately embraced by an airy pop arrangement and vocals. THE MOVEMENT starts like an ambient track, spiced here and there with guitar sounds and bass sequences until the beat slowly starts to support the track’s dramaturgy. The radical CRACK is one of the core parts of the album with its monotonous stroboscope-like sounds and hard, ecstatic dance-floor compatibility. PERSPECTIVE in contrast belongs to the more Krautrock-ish, improvised tracks and reminds of a morning walk through the wet, German forest. THE SMALLEST PART offers elegiac and transcendental moments: Everything the eye cannot see and the ear cannot hear can be found in this track. LOVE is soft and easy, personal and lofty. The album ends with STORM and its open identity. Maybe SURROUNDED BY WEATHER is the perfect combination of 70s Kraut-Glam and 90s Techno feeling and will make both shining bright again! Yet in a NEW way!
Written & produced by PNN. Mixed by Volker Pannes & PNN. Lyrics by Jens-Uwe Beyer & Michael Heydebreck. Bass on ID Card & Touch by Tim Rohde. Rhodes on ID Card & Touch by Sebastian Weber. Backing Vocals on Touch by Komi (courtesy of m.a.r.s.) & Tim Rohde. Cover by John Harten.
Artist: Popnoname
Title: Surrounded by Weather
Label: Italic
Cat. No.: ITA 080
Format: CD/LP
Distribution: Kompakt & Rough Trade
Release Date: 20 October 2008
Barcode: 880319317828
Genre: Indie House
Tracklisting: 1. 2012 (05:08), 2. Touch (03:36), 3. ID Card (03:56), 4. The Movement (05:11), 5. Crack (06:17), 6. Perspective (08:17), 7. The Smallest Part (04:39), 8. Love (03:57), 9. Storm (04:37)
