Brikha's 'Deeparture' lulls with simple beats

"Deeparture In Time" seems a logical release in the slow revitalization of Derrick May's Detroit-based techno label, Transmat, recognized globally for its heavenly brand of sensual electronic music. Brikha's album keeps with this tradition, sounding more like a soundtrack for a long candlelit night of poetic incense-hazed bedroom romance than an overcrowded, sweaty rave in the seedy ghettos of Detroit.

That, of course, doesn't mean Brikha's techno won't make you want to dance. It's just more likely to make you want to dim the lights, strip, crawl into your bed and appreciate just how sexy a surround-sound stereo system with a huge subwoofer can make you feel.

The 68-minute album includes eleven tracks that don't stray too far from a very simple formula: loop a smooth bassline and slowly fade multiple synthesizer loops into the rhythm track. This may sound like something a monkey could do, but when the right knobs are turned, the right filtering is done, inhumanly serene sounds are chosen and the timing is precise, the finished product is a beautiful thing. With the exception of a few lackluster tracks, Brikha comes the closest to making a beautiful thing anyone outside of Northern Europe has accomplished with the exception of Plastikman, Theorem and Moby since the golden age of techno.

Unfortunately, this album isn't the best soundtrack for all occasions. As a soundtrack for driving, it will lull you to sleep or send you into the absentminded depths of an endless daydream.

As a soundtrack for anything involving deep intimacy - conversation, lovemaking, meditation, essay composition - it will work wonders.

The simplicity and mind-numbing repetition with faintly detectable variations makes this music the equivalent of having the interior of your bedroom handpainted by Mark Rothko. It makes simplicity sublime for those who appreciate this form of art.

Deeparture in Time

Reviewed by Daily Arts Writer

Jason Birchmeier

Transmat

Aril Brikha

09-21-99