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Ron Boots & Friends

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Since the late Eighties, Ron Boots has been one of the crispest and most engaging electronic composers to export his music from the Netherlands. Boots' style of electronic music is deeply rooted in the Berlin School, but it reaches far beyond those influences, to achieve a sound that is uniquely his. Fusing elements of contemporary electronics, pop, and film soundtrack scores, Boots' music is as rich and powerful as it is atmospheric.

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BAS B. BROEKHUIS: The Escher Drawings (CD on Groove Unlimited)

This CD from 2004 features 62 minutes of dreamy electronic music. Originally released in 1991, this edition has been remastered.

From his work with Ron Boots, Keller & Schönwälder, the System, and tons of high profile session work, Bas Broekhuis has established himself a Europe’s premiere electronic percussionist.

This release is thoroughly tasty and endearing. Expanding his equipment to include a wide range of synthesizers and samplers, Broekhuis produces EM of the highest quality. Rich with looping keyboard riffs and swimming with heavenly textures, the music exudes a powerful dynamic. Even the dreamier passages evoke a stately command, not unlike the beauty of a mountaintop sunset.

Turgid notes sparkle amid a pool of shimmering calm, agitating the harmonic in a congenial fashion. The flow swells, achieving an insistent velocity, then plunges into a cosmic tunnel that compresses the resonance into a palpable intimacy for the listener. Some tones are stretched into infinite backdrops for a host of crystalline embellishments.

Rhythms abound as serpentine threads of e-perc undulate throughout the melodies. While rarely demonstrative in their execution, these rhythms are riveting and just as commanding as the authoritative atmospherics.

This music embodies an ethereal disposition that brims with vitality.

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HYDRYTHMIX (RON BOOTS & BAS BROEKHUIS): Project Two/Point One (CD on Groove Unlimited)

This release from 2004 features 79 minutes of powerful EM, originally recorded and released back in 1989 on cassette.

Combining Boots’ masterful electronics and Broekhuis’ rhythmic expertise, the result could only be dazzling and engaging.

Sparkling notes cascade with exhilaration, flowing past surging riffs that captivate the audience and spilling into a zone where everything collides with creative forethought. Heavenly airs waft above as these elements merge and infiltrate each other. Chords meld into other notes. Sequenced threads loop and recycle until a lavish panorama is achieved. Beats pitter and patter, mounting to generate impassioned tempos.

Lurking in these melodies is a profusion of vivacious pinnacles, each of which delivers a severe dose of optimism and elation. Stately, slow-building patterns accrete power and auxiliary textures until they reach gripping crescendos of immensely satisfying proportion. The journey to those peaks is as thrilling as the zeniths themselves. With each passing moment, tension builds, tickling the audience with the promise of grand apexes in store for all. When those ecstatic heights are reached, the music continues to deliver reward after reward, almost exhausting the listener...until the next track’s momentous skyward course replenishes vigor with harmonic ease.

On this release, you will encounter a track that is a preliminary version of material that later evolved into Broekhuis’ “The Escher Drawings” CD.

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FRANK KLARE: Monumental Dreams (CD on Groove Unlimited)

This release from 2004 features 71 minutes of retro electronic music.

German synthesist Frank Klare has been recording electronic music for many years, as a solo artist and with bands like Synco and Traumklang. Klare is joined on this release by Ron Boots, who lends his EM expertise to three of the album’s seven tracks.

Generous atmospherics fill a cold sky with mounting warmth. Layered sequences descend from the beyond, adding strong definition and appealing melodies to this harmonic flow. A feeling of sedate calm is laced with strident chords that elevate the tranquillity to more dynamic territory, generating a lavish disposition of sonic majesty and meticulous intention. Long intros melt into involved compositions that bristle with verve and passion. This slow-building fashion allows each melody to evolve and flourish in an unhurried manner, resulting in tunes that flaunt earnest creativity with abundance.

E-perc plays a sneakily integral role in these compositions; often these beats are generated by sounds that possess no impacts, becoming rhythms by their cyclic utilization. Ah, but more conventional rhythms are present too, fleshing out the songs with engaging tempos that superbly propel the melodies to grander heights.

Twinkling keys spawn nimble chords that dance around additional riffs like moths pursuing a mobile night-light, generating a lavish interplay that weaves with an appealing sway. With each rotation, the patterns reach higher and higher in both majesty and emotional content.

Deriving deep roots in the works of Tangerine Dream, this release is certain to excite fans of that sound.

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