Frankfurt-based electronic producer Roman Flugel is perhaps known by many for his partnership alongside Jorn Elling Wuttke as Alter Ego, but at the same time he’s continued to release tracks solo under his own name since the late nineties, including 2004’s club hit ‘Geht’s Nocht?’ Despite this prolific work rate though, Flugel’s debut solo album ‘Fatty Folders’ only emerged in 2011, and three years on this latest album release on Dial ‘Happiness Is Happening’ finally offers up its follow-up. While many of the ten tracks collected here use Flugel’s established house / techno heritage as a jumping off point, there’s a far wider scope of genres and moods being explored here, making this an album perhaps tailored slightly more towards headphone listening than the dancefloor.
Opening track ‘Connecting The Ghost’s provides a good indication of the sorts of extended genre boundaries being explored here, kicking things off with a wander through streamlined yet laidback krautrock rhythms that calls to mind the likes of Cluster or Harmonia, as clicking drum machines roll beneath wavering analogue synth trails and burbling bass tones, the entire track calling to mind a drive down some distant highway. By contrast, ‘Friendship Song’ offers up an eerie downbeat glide through glittering electro synths and swelling grandiose chords that sits far closer to ‘Black Celebration’-era Depeche Mode as zapping drum machines snap against swelling bass presence, and you can practically taste the dry ice.
Elsewhere though, ‘Wilkie’ sees Flugel’s dancefloor predilections rising to the forefront as sheeny New Wave synths and glittering electro arpeggios lend an Italo-disco edge to the streamlined house rhythms that power beneath, before ‘Tense Times’ takes things off on a seven minute glide through streamlined tech-house rhythms that sees tumbling melodic percussion elements adding a mesmerising edge to the crisp rolling snares and shimmering, phased synth pads. All up, ‘Happiness Is Happening’ is an impressive and diverse second album from Roman Flugel that’s well worth seeking out.
