The Bionaut
Lubricate Your Living Room
(Matador Records)
Simply put, Jorg Burger is a music maniac. Not only does he run music labels named Popular and Eat Raw, collaborate with other artists (as he did with the Las Vegas with Mike Ink), but he also releases lots of music under various pseudonyms himself. Not only has he released work by the name of Trinkwasser, Geometric Farms, and the Modernist (both Opportunity Knox. and Explosion), but also under as the Bionaut. On a par with artists like Luke Vibert for being prolific, he puts out work that is consistently listenable and more often than not very good.
Lubricate Your Living Room is one of those releases that you'll absolutely adore if you're heard music by Burger and enjoyed it, but didn't know how you could get your hands on it. Comprised of 18 different tracks all taken from out-of-print European-only releases, it's a 71-minute release that actaully fits the title fairly well. That is, to say, although there are beats the tracks, they're mainly subdued and the album is best used as a warm sound lining for lounging about and relaxing (or other things, but I'll leave that up to you).
Coming from Burger, you can already guess that this is going to be a warm sounding release, and you'd definitely be right about that. Unlike last years Explosion, though, the beats aren't made for the dancefloor really. It's the more laid-back persona, and probably the more playful one as well, judging from the music located within and the song titles. The disc starts out with "Electric Campfire" and you know what you're getting into right away. The track slowly unfolds with some nicely layered tones and rich undercurrent, and a female vocal sample drifts above everything. Of course, an even quieter sample of a guy talking about some rather smutty lovin' is layered underneath that, and the first time you hear it, it might just catch you off guard (I know it did me). Tonally, it fits with the track, but once you realize what the fellow is saying, you'll realize you probably shouldn't be playing it so loud in your work cubicle.
Although the tracks are taken from 7 different singles and all-mixed up in a seemingly random order, the album never breaks a flow but still manages to be fairly refreshing. The album-titled track glides along with some pretty, layered chiming sounds and an unobtrusive beat while "Student Bashing At The Seaside" conjures up happy images ala Plaid with it's whimsical sound. While there are a couple tracks that sort of stray from the sound, it's nothing that really wears on the nerves. "P. Bateman" (perhaps named after the main character in American Psycho) takes a much darker route than most of the other tracks on the release, but it's followed up with a couple of light numbers that wipe away any memory of it. On "Blue & Green," he even includes a bit of vocals, but instead of making them in the forefront, they just become another ethereal element in the track. If I have any complaints about the album, it's that it actually runs a bit long. While most of the tracks are inventive and stand pretty well on their owns, sometimes the release blurs together a bit. Of course, this also means that this is indeed a great disc for putting on and letting plunk along in the background. It's nice, mid-tempo music that is warm and inviting, and if you like what you've heard by Burger before, or wish there was a slightly less squirrelly version of Mouse On Mars, this is your release.
Rating: 7.25
