| Artist |
Bochum Welt |
| Label |
Device |
| Year |
2004 |
| Rating |
★★★★☆ |
| Summary |
Like ...I Care Because You Do, only shorter and more polished. |
I know it seems like I see all music in relation to Aphex Twin, but with this album it's justified. Released ten years too late but no worse for it, Bochum Welt's album Kissing a Robot Goodbye harks back to Aphex Twin's ...I Care Because You Do.
Just to make my position absoultely clear, Bochum Welt rips off Aphex Twin's mid–nineties style with this album, and that's a good thing. He perfectly captures the balance of extremes, pairing off soft, lush music that's alternately beautiful and haunting with the sort of synth noodling that's the sign of someone obsessed with electronic music's Kraftwerk–led golden era.
So if this is a stylistic copy of ...I Care Because You Do, the obvious question is: is it better or worse? This will sound like heresy, but to my ears this album sounds better than its inspiration. It's just as much a cinematic journey of bittersweet melodies combined with harsh electronic bleeps and burbles, and it improves upon its muse by being more coherent and polished.
I'd recommend Kissing a Robot Goodbye to Aphex Twin fans struggling to find any other artist who can appease them. Sure, it's shorter — at just under twenty–five minutes, it's even shorter than the subsequent Richard D. James Album and any Kraftwerk album you care to mention — but what Bochum Welt lacks in stamina, he makes up for with quality. This is undoubtedly the result of throwing away the bad and even mediocre tracks, keeping only the best. If only Aphex Twin did the same.