BluRay Review: Recoil - A Strange Hour In Budapest

Written by JeeJay Wednesday, 06 March 2013 12:05

Artist: Recoil
Title: A Strange Hour In Budapest
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 31st August 2012
Label: Shunt / Alfa Matrix

BluRay Review

Reviewing RECOIL's music is not an ordinary task... First because of the emotional relationship between the Artist, with a big A, MISTER ALAN WILDER and his fans. So much happened since first RECOIL project back in the late 80's, both in his DEPECHE MODE role till 1995 and in the evolution of his solo work. Although he regularly released albums since his departure from DM, he was locked in his studio and chances to see him live one day was slim. So when suddenly the ‘Selected’ project was announced in 2009 (Rework compilation, unreleased remixes, tour...) the joy was immense.

So, ok, this was not a real “live” show with musicians and so on but the concept was interesting and promising: Alan Wilder, Paul Kendall, two laptops and a couple of keyboards, giant screen for visual projections... and it worked pretty good. Although not live performances, there were more changes and differences between each gigs than in a DEPECHE MODE tour! In constant evolution, the “Strange Hours Tour” was close to an electro DJ set. Don't expect me to do a track by track review as, wherever in studio or live, a RECOIL project is at all. On the musical sound side, this BluRay is astonishing... let's not forget we are dealing here with Mister Violator/ Songs Of Faith & Devotion (to name his last work with DM only).

The set covers both his own work (‘Prey’, ‘Want’, ‘Drifting’, ‘Allelujah’ to name a few), some DEPECHE MODE remixes (‘Never Let Me Down Again’, ‘In Your Room’, ‘Walking In My Shoes’, ‘Personal Jesus’) and some interesting other pieces such as ‘Warm Leatherette’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’... Useless to say that when the Aggro Mix Bass-line from ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ appears at the end of ‘Killing Ground’, the crowd goes wild! Alan Wilder even encourages the audience here and there... There's a special guest in the person of the long-time friend and collaborator Douglas McCarthy from NITZER EBB on the cult ‘Faith Healer’.

Overall, this 80minutes soundtrack is an in depths trip into one of the most creative musician career. Essential for all fans, and a very good way for curious people to discover his work. All of the tracks are distorted and reworked enough to have a live feel and interest, but just enough not to make it sound like an intellectual inaccessible concept. On the visual side... obviously, shooting 2 guys behind machines and a screen is not an easy task. But the team manages it well with a dynamic editing. The quality of image is stunning too. As bonus, 3 promotional videos of ‘Prey’, ‘Want’ and ‘Allelujah’ as well as 16 minutes of video projections used during the live show. The only downside of the project is that no DVD is available for those who don't own a BluRay... and there are still a lot of them...


Tracklist

01. Intro
02. Prey
03. Want
04. Drifting
05. Allelujah
06. Killing Ground
07. Never Let Me Down Again
08. In Your Room
09. Uranokemia
10. Warm Leatherette
11. Heartbeat Interlude
12. Stalker
13. Faith Healer
14. Shunt
15. Jezebel / Walking In My Shoes / Are Friends Electric?
16. Personal Jesus

Bonus:
PROMOTIONAL FILMS Running time : 21 minutes
WANT (Renegade of Noise 808 remix)
PREY (Shotgun mix)
ALLELUJAH (subHuman album version)


Additional Information

A Strange Hour in Budapest - Running time: 84 minutes
Directed by: Attila Herkó

PROMOTIONAL FILMS Running time : 21 minutes
Directed by : Dmitry Semenov

LIVE PROJECTIONS - Running time : 16 minutes


Line-up

Alan Wilder – Keyboards & Machine
Paul Kendall – Keyboards & Machine


Website

http://blog.recoil.co.uk/
Trailer: http://youtu.be/uCHHFiRWy04


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9.5
Sound: 9.5
Extras: 9.5
Total: 9.5 / 10