Bleep

With "Leave Me Alone", Detlef Weinrich presents his fifth album under the moniker

Tolouse Low Trax. Weinrich, who has meanwhile turned his back on Düsseldorf

and lives in Paris, has long since ceased to be an insider tip and is a guest in

renowned clubs and festivals all over Europe. With his new album, he succeeds

in an exciting, unforeseen new direction. The velvety heaviness and rawness of

earlier records seems to have given way to a new playfulness. A playfulness

perhaps in the sense of an electronica reminiscent of the late 1990s, which in its

idea of deconstruction and reduction is currently enjoying a new appreciation in

the clubs. But also in the sense of an urban vibe of hip hop and dub references,

which are woven into a very unique mix in Weinrich's tracks.

Nervous mechanical murmurs, drifting comic-like through razor-sharp rhythm cliffs:

welcome to "Leave Me Alone", a loop meta-level dreamland of styles and mental

meteorology. A repetitive notion on the overwhelming speechlessness towards the

world, its clocking, and all the despairs that come along with it. Wholly veiled in a

sharp sonorous language, that brings a complete agreement of the expression with

the idea, a sense of harmony, of a secret beauty, that often escapes the judgment

of the crowd. It marks the latest longplayer by Tolouse Low Trax. After his stunning

collaboration with French singer and hurdy gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrenin and

myriad remixes for artists like Aksak Maboul, Ex Ponto, or Sebastian Tellier, he

sharpened his artistic skills for a fresh musical treasure hunt. "Leave Me Alone" is

a renunciation from the industrial slow drone zones, waving into spectacular decon-

structed style collages. 13 veiled drum machine experiments, featuring dubby jazz

districts, hip-hop flair, haunting little melodies, and the TLT signature funk. Again, he

listened to the prose of his rhythms deeply, connecting the tones, placing rhythmic

commas judiciously, like stops on a long road. All obscured into a new, ironic, yet

totally serious sound layout, that is mirrored in the minimalistic shaped cover art-

work full of suggestions to ramified cultural meanings. For a wonder, this time

almost no pocketed vocal samples in the TLT creations. Instead, freshly recorded

spoken words and singing by Brooklyn based producer Chris Hontos aka Beat

Detectives, poet and multidisciplinary artist Fran from Paris and Italian synthesist

and singer Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist, chanting introspective verses and Pier

Paolo Pasolini poems over rugged grooves and suggestive sounds, opening his

creative universe into a crisp manic eroticism. A cluster of genres, dancing in a

rebellious, blistering swing, whirling styles upside down with an overall atmosphere

that is flourishing on a positive spirit. An accessibility unusual for TLT and his non-

conformist MPC driven music. So, let’s leave him alone and get lost in a wavering

jaunt that chase away angst and depression with smoky musical spells and

dramatic interlocking beat patterns.