Klartraum // Secret Moon [Lucidflow]

Secret Moon is Lucidflow’s Nadja Lind and Helmut Ebritsch’s second full length outing. The transition from producing dancefloor edged tech sounds to a more considered album mood is always a challenge; do you tone your sound down or lay down 80 minutes of DJ box fodder?

From what I can discern, the main difference between listening to this and listening to a Klartraum EP is that you can start to hear the playful edge that the pair have in their live show. Taking title track Secret Moon as an example, an eleven and a half minute marathon, it shifts through multiple moods of simple meandering deep house, then Jan Hammer-esque improvs with pinprick shards of laser fire percussion, before settling on wide emotive synth pads to wash the track away. It just feels like the pair are sat inside your music playing medium of choice, lining up and tweaking clips just for your pleasure.

In general there are a core of set of values at work here, on the uptempo tracks at least. Coming from someone whose knowledge of Klartraum and Lucidflow has gone from zero to oh hello! over the course of 2012, I can now spot their distinctive dub with pump sound a mile off; subtle, dubby sonic textures set on top of zappy edged percussion. Each track works from this foundation, but shifts off in its own direction; the latin flamenco edge of Amazonas-Santiago, Kazantrip’s midnight dark dub journey, the emotional orchestral strings and field recording samples in finale Orchideem, or Diving Dancer’s long and blissful breakdown with African chatter and chants. Its an unmistakable and coherent musical vision.

There are a few moments of non-house based enjoyment to be had, some low tempo grooves in the form of Universe and Something Wrong, which feels like successful a hybrid between Funkstörung’s sharper hip-hop moments and Klartraum’s dub sensibilities. So on the whole, Secret Moon is a smooth, consistent ride, something you can put on to accompany an afternoon of shadow dodging in the summer, or cherry pick some musclier moments to get your shake on to.

Release Date: Out Now
Words: fourfourfun