Orchestra Of Bubbles is life-affirming music in the most wide-eyed of senses. Sweaty, throbbing electro pulses flirt with fat analogue beats, swim through gleaming ambient pools, and ride on the wings of Ellen Allien’s sprightly voice. Pieces such as ¨Way Out¨ are essentially about overflow: one’s ear is clipped by a bevy of different voices, some restrained and in the background, some flying sharply just over one’s head. Similarly, the perambulating atmospheres are rife with numerous cadences and moods. Now and again, the glassy electronics follow a steady 4/4 structure, shaded by warble-like ringing tones looped to infinity; at other times the squelchy thuds and pops murmur softly just below a dusty ambient glow.
¨Retina¨, in particular, is wound tight like a coiled spring. The aquatic pads and high-necked baseline fall into a repetitive pattern that is infected by a plaintive string refrain. Further songs continue to fashion sleek, robust rhythms that constantly replenish themselves, gorging themselves, as it were, on the ever-changing relationships in which they are thrown. Yet these relationships are not wholly random. Although songs like ¨Metric¨ skirt off into dance floor realms, the aberrant, flighty nature of the beat programming and the fizzy, hallucinogenic character of the effects bring this otherwise erratic album together and house it under a unified concept. Put simply, the persuasion at play here is that of travel. With this in mind, these songs are fit for moments when the unknown no longer seems daunting, but an invigorating invitation.
