The Bionaut - "Lush-Life Electronica"

Just as the Cologne, Germany, sound was picking up speed, Jörg Burger, under his Bionaut alias, released Lush Life Electronica and set a new high watermark for the IDM scene. The album is perfectly described by its title, with lush and lively synthesizers, groovy beats, and a gentle trip-hop/trance vibe that works both on the dancefloor and in the living room. Like Please Teenage! or Lubricate Your Living Room (which grabs several tracks from this release), Lush Life Electronica is easy-to-swallow techno. "Second Hand Furniture" encapsulates the Bionaut sound in a single track -- a simple keyboard and bass motif repeated with brushed drums and gentle melodic flourishes. "The Recipe" recalls Burger's work with Mike Ink under the Burger/Ink moniker, with a pulsing bass and subtle evolving synth pads. Whereas some Burger-related projects fall into the house category (the Modernist) and others into the avant dance category (Burger/Ink), the Bionaut releases, this one in particular, are excellent examples of the minimal techno scene.

3 stars