Artist: Daniel Colletti´s Electric Batcave
Title: Berlin (Single)
Genre: Wave / Retro Pop
Release Date: 18th November 2011
Label: Danse Macabre
Single Review
There are people whose activity isn’t framed by ubiquitous presence or even popularity necessarily, but who are nevertheless always part of something. Daniel Colletti is one of those, a bustling all-rounder (quote), who left his marks in the Berlin underground with bands like REGENZEIT (what featured the TANGERINE DREAM live-keyboarder T. Quaeschning) or APHEKT (a fossil of the early nineties). THE ELECTRIC BATCAVE is his current project now and the single ‘Berlin’ the band’s debut output, considered as an appetizer for the upcoming fulltime album.
And in some ways it works, cause ‘Berlin’ is musically a real nice song. If you like the “Wish-era” CURE, you’ll love to hear it for it’s weightless buoyancy, it’s great melodious guitars and it’s balance between shallow pop-rock and layered wave, between merriment and subliminal melancholy, caused by those CURE-like harmonies and Colletti´s voice, what’s tune and acoustic colour is more than a “Smithian” parallel sometimes. (Ever wanted to hear Mr. Smith saying “Döner & Falafel”? Here you get very close!). Lyrically we move through some snapshots of Colletti’s hometown, viewed from a native’s angle, depicting a mood beyond big city idyll and postcard romanticism, not completely clean of irony and mannered cynicism.
In a very clear and plain language, like keywords from a prompter, you find political innuendos, multicultural jibes, references to an architectural imbalance, demographical side blows and even (I guess an Self-reference) the Bohemian difficulty of staggering between art and alcohol. An urban ode to the imperfection, a love song for the Moloch. Beside the original version the single contains only two further revisions of the same song. The first one (named ‘Detroit Express Mix’) is a gloomy, electro-pimped mixture of lounge-like basses and distorted guitars with a lot more energy and drive, feeling like the surface of a collage for being riddled with loops and samples. A nice “art”-work, but a little bit too far from the original’s charm and it’s smoothness of flowing.
The second version (‘House Mashup Mix’) seems to try to justify the “Electric” in the band’s name, cause it’s dominated by Drum & Bass dance beats, underlaid by spherical carpets and synthetic neon lights. Made for dancing (or nocturnal car rides), disregarding the lyrical content (the more so as the vocals are mixed far in the background for becoming an accessory only). The variety of the single’s three chapters makes it difficult to outline Colletti´s musical intention, to perceive a direction the upcoming album will move to. Personally I hope, that the original version acts as a yardstick for all to expect, cause it’s a really lovely and charming song (finding home in my head for some days now), whereas the two mixes (even if they’re credibly and convincingly arranged) seem to cover their raison d'être a bit. So let’s wait for finding out what road Colletti is going to take out of the city…
Tracklist
01. Berlin
02. Berlin (Detroit Express Mix)
03. Berlin (House Mashup Mix)
Line-up
Daniel Colletti - Vocals, Lyrics, Instruments
Website
http://www.electricbatcave.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 7 / 10
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