MODELBAU - METAL AND MOTIF 7" + MARCH WIND Cassette

7", muhmur.radio@gmail.com
Cassette, https://grisaille.bandcamp.com/

Two Modelbau releases this week, and I'll review them a bit differently this time. Why? Well, first of all, I've spoken to the maker, who we all know, and he gave me a bit of extra information about them, giving me a chance to analyse the sound more. Second, I reviewed several Modelbau releases, and I'm an admirer of 'the drone' and minimal compositions. So getting a new release from an artist I've reviewed quite often already is... It's like you can only say ever so often, "this is great stuff", "you should buy it", or "deep drone with high-pitched layering creating some nice depth", or whatever ...

Last week's 'Night Route' (Vital Weekly 1381) opened a door for this conversation with Frans. I had written the review from the perspective of 'sonic travelling', a nightly drive that might be long or short, and the way the outside is interpreted by the storyteller and told as a sound/drone/track. When he told me he had two more coming out, a cassette and a 7", he asked me if I wanted to do those too, so I said yes.

'March Wind' is a five-track cassette on Grisaille, and it's his 6th on that label. The previous one was also reviewed by me (Vital Weekly 1327), and precisely what I said above goes for this release too. Like "May Flower", "March Wind" is 'minimalistic electronics, looped field recordings, strings/pads of unknown origin, and slow mixing layers or added effects are all properly produced, resulting in a solid release.' What's the verdict? Well, Modelbau has a particular style. And if/when you listen to a track, you might be able to hear it's a Modelbau track. And that is not bad because Frans does an excellent thing there.

'Metal and Motif' is a 7" with almost 12 minutes of playing time. So the tracks aren't long, and the storytelling must be focussed. And, well, I hear the use of different types of sounds. It's all less stretched and submerged in delay and reverb. Less saturation is maybe the word I'm looking for. ADDITION: I'm listening to all tracks as audio-file on the computer, so there is no colouring of sounds from the chosen media. The B-sides are getting a bit more of the darkness I also heard on the cassette (the 'submerged'-sound), but it's being complemented with more brightness and a wider frequency spectrum in the additional/other sounds. So it sounds all more defined, more determined, more thought of, less 'live' and more 'studio'. Amazing!

The extra info I got was about the recording setup used for both recordings. The Grisaille tape was recorded in March 2021, just before the change in his setup. This previous setup 'dictated' more one-take composing and recording. So older Modelbau material might be considered "Live in the Studio". The 'Metal and Motif' was recorded at the end of 2022 and included more layered recording techniques. Not a one-take, but more carefully produced layers creating the result. And all artists here will know it will take more time to work like this, so there might be a little less Modelbau being released and reviewed, but heads-up: The quality of production and composition might exceed your wildest dreams.