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Although “Velocity” is a release of contemporary and general-melodic instrumental electronics, it also sees Robert wander back to several of his classic roots that marked the start of his EM-career back in 1979. Besides some catchy melodies and a few mellow sounding solos, the 64-minute “Velocity” features seven sequencer-driven and texture-based works, a blend aptly illustrated by the 13-minute opener “Velocity of Flow”. The chill-out “Strength of Pressure” following next though proves weak and superficial, containing annoying sax-sounds and some uninteresting vocoder voices. At first “Xpress Yourself” seemed to follow in the same manner but is fortunately saved by a nice soft soaring lead voice (reminiscent of Schroeder’s early days) and an overall lush sound design. “Aftertouch” turns out downright superficial to my ears, while the rhythmic-spiced title piece doesn’t turn out anyway inspired or pleasant either. Still another two tracks to go that might change this. “Ribbon Control” initially turns out a quiet sound painting but the groovy bass, rhythm and brief solo started in the second half doesn’t do any good. Robert also lost it on the final piece “Psychedelic”, a mixed bag of style and experiment of which the spatial sequence and choir pads kicking in halfway make the only interesting ingredients to my ears. Overall, there’s too much missing throughout the whole release to make it interesting. In the end the outcome of Mr. Schroeder’s 36th solo effort isn’t special, it left me puzzled and unsatisfied. |
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You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Robert Schroeder artist page
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