Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - 'Eine Kleine Nacht Musik' (Modular) Released 14/07/08

This is not a Mozart review, this is 'Eine Kleine Nacht Musik', an instrumental work from Newcastle born Henry Smithson, best known for his work with Riton (alongside Playgroup's Luca Santucci and Lee Jones of Howdi), also of Grand Central Records notoriety. Crank up the motor and grease the wheels for some autobahn frisky! Smithson splices the motorik beats and vintage synths on this incarnation, in part a homage to the cosmik 70's German bands of Neu!, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Roedelius, whilst Smithson forever holds an ear to the future by bringing in contemporary and traditional elements with imaginative leaps.

Shades of Kraftwerk are obvious with a gleaming piece of musik on the touchstone opening track 'Ertrinken' - all crystalline synths, bass hum and driving motorik beat (bass-bass-bass-snare - dear trainspotter) that invites the holy alliance of asphalt and a cruise, more an autobahn's open-drive policy than the M1's funk and grind. An experimental corner is turned on the beatless 'Die Fontane' with fabulous kaleidoscopic sitar playing evoking Indian nights under Goan skies, and 'Bardolator' returns the beats on a cross-continental pollination of Orientalist sampling, wicked party sitar and a low-key motorik beat that gets all jolly and hands-free.

A Teutonic coldness informs the elekronika of 'Feverprobe' as vintage synths meet mental acid sequencers and rolliking motorik beats (bosh of all drums at once), whilst the Gary Numan-esque 'Besuchen Sie Mich Einmal' has an industrial firmness coupled with a strident Teutonic marching beat that squares up to the dancefloors. 'Finster' comes across as a vintage digi-ditty, and a cosmik work in 'Das Regenecho' has a Vangelis-like crisp and cleanness with a Venusian otherworldliness from tinkly keys and cello, whilst the cartoonish 'Facheschaft' has a vintage merry-go-round whirl and motorik-lite (a kind of 'How to do Motorik') that overstays it's welcome, whereas on 'Gotterdammerung' there's a distinctly Jean Michel Jarre vein with an imaginative dance of the mayfly's futurism from sequencer and electronik piano.

Henry Smithson has pulled off a coup! Who cares for the academic musings over whether the motorik beat pattern is bass-bass-snare-bass, or bass-bass-bass-snare. Whilst having the gravitas to sit alongside the 70's works that form it's inspiration, 'Eine Kleine Nacht Musik' is more experimental than purely conceptual - the sound of the future meeting the past on the autobahn to Frankfurt. A little late night musik that doesn't try too hard to please.