Moderat: MORE D4TA – Album – 2022

Review for Moderat: MORE D4TA – Album – 2022

Artist: Moderat
Title: MORE D4TA
Format: Album
Label: Monkeytown Records
Release Date: 13. Mai 2022
Land of Origin: Germany
Genre: Electronica
10 Tracks • 44m 49s

At Qobuz avail. in Hi-res
24 Bit / 48 kHz – stereo

At Apple Music available
in Dolby Atmos

For the German translation of
this review >>> click here <<<

MODERAT and the world of numbers.

When MODESELEKTOR [Gernot Bronsert + Sebastian Szary] and APPARAT [Sascha Ring] decide to become ONE, it turns into a TRIO band called MODERAT, letting all three create their own melodic world. All good things come in threes and the result of this ingenious collaboration is clear: Hardly anyone has brought electronic music from Berlin into the far corners of the world with more passion and enthusiasm than the TWO heavyweights MODERAT and, of course, Sascha Ring with APPARAT…

In 2002 Sascha, Gernot and Sebastian met for the first time. At that time APPARAT and MODESELEKTOR were already well established and influenced the Berlin music scene. Sascha (APPARAT) had already released his debut album and Gernot and Sebastian (MODESELEKTOR} could come up with a series of 12 inch albums. A cooperation was far away from reality, but the only question was, when these two factions would join forces.

In 2003 they united and as MODERAT they released the EP „AUF KOSTEN DER GESUNDHEIT“. It took another six years for the three to compile the album called „Moderat“. The secret of the collaboration of these three German electronic musicians may lie in the fact that they never even attempted to get close to each other. MODESELEKTOR’s thundering deep pseudo-hip bass thunderstorms bounced deep down against basement walls, whereas Sascha Ring’s and APPARAT’s soulfully subtle cloudy melodic constructs would like to float and disappear into other realms.

The success of MODERAT is based on the fact that musical constructs that were thought to be incompatible can actually fit together and come up with enormously impressive sound worlds.

Due to the success, of course, the fans eagerly awaited a follow-up album. This was released in August 2013 on Monkeytown Records and is simply titled „II“.

For the time being, all went the well-known separate/common way for [MODERAT=(Modesektor+APPARAT)]. Concerts were followed by singles, which wanted to set the mood for a new album. In the meantime, the fan community had become familiar with the MODERAT way of the two divided/united factions. They were curious to see what Sascha, Szary and Gernot had to offer in their distributed musical world of work.

In a certain way MODERAT is the connecting bracket where the three family members can realize their own musical projects and enrich each other mutually. MODESELEKTOR holds the brushes and paints for the sound fars, while APPARAT is painting then the story that the band MODERAT would like to tell.

In 2016 they finally released their third album, simply titled „III“. A year later, in 2017, in front of 17,000 Moderat announced that they would be taking a long break after a final concert in their hometown of Berlin.

Now I have to make a cut and clarify a few things. I have told you (with the active support of the Monkeytown label) the story of Moderat as far as possible without any judgement from my side, but I have to confess that I had nothing to do with the musical work of Sascha, Gernot and Sebastian in the formations MODERAT, MODESELEKTOR and APPARAT up to 2019.

Modeselektor I always felt to be too hip, too much musically styled, with Moderat I didn’t want to relate in any way, because a creative part of this formation was MODESELEKTOR. With Sascha Ring and APPART, of course, I had little contact for the known reasons.

But all this should change completely on May 29, 2019, because on this day their performance „Apparat (live) at Passengers – ARTE Concert“ appeared on YouTube and this changed everything. Until today, this gig is one of the best I have ever seen. Also, the APPARAT ALBUM LP5, which was released in March 2019, was a must-have.

Since that time, APPARAT with it‘ s often baroque chamber music electronica belongs for me to the best electronic combos in Germany and Sascha Ring to the style-defining icons of the German electronic scene. Sascha is the trendsetter par excellence and, in my opinion, has easily toppled the well-known old greats of German electronica like Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze or even Tangerine Dream from their pedestals.

And so I waited eagerly for a new album from Sascha Ring and APPARAT, especially since the soundtracks from APPARAT released in 2020 couldn’t really excite me.

The album MORE D4TA by MODERAT

Then, at the beginning of April, I became aware of Moderat’s new album through the info of my agency partner Ballyhoo – and Sacha Ring was again on board. This information alone was enough for me to request the info and take a closer look at it.

As usual with the Berlin collective of three, MORE D4TA has again grown out of collaboration and mutual inspiration. But the band first had to get closer to each other again and redefine themselves musically after the long period of time that had passed. Musical ideas had been shared, but after a short time they had been rejected again. There was an intense experimental process – with modular synthesizers, field recordings and other sonic ingredients, which gives the album a peculiarly fascinating expressiveness.

But no matter how far the band may venture into musical parallel worlds, at the end of the day they always returned to their own expansive sonic universe. To a place where emotionally charged electro(nic) pop meets multidimensional layers of sound. The result can’t exactly be described as dance music, but the spherical sound layers, over which Sascha Ring’s unearthly, fragile-sounding vocals are spreading out, are sparkling brightest in the darkness of the night in an appropriate club.

Under the Bottom Line

Only over a fairly long period of time the album opens up completely to the listener, but the places that are explored piece by piece in the individual tracks convey a very familiar feeling of a musical home when approached repeatedly. The fast thumping NEON RATS is a very good example for this and develops itself to one of the musical anchor points on this album over time. Sascha Ring can convince with his plaintive brittle vocals on tracks like MORE LOVE or on the almost pastoral EASY PRAY and also on UNDO REDO all along the line.

MORE D4TA as an album has a very own magic and a very individual color theory – but the work is danceable in a whole series of moments.

The album is available on Qobuz and Apple Music in 24 bit / 48 kHz in Hir-res format and sounds already excellent over the entire frequency range. In addition, on Apple Music MORE D4TA is also available in the room-filling Dolby Atmos format. Eric Horstmann from the well-known Dolby Atmos studio „Immersive Lab“ and his team in Berlin have recorded the album in this relatively new sound format and hit the jackpot. By avoiding sound effect gimmicks, Eric has succeeded in giving the album an incredible depth and spatiality.

You close your eyes and feel like you’re listening to Moderat’s MORE D4TA in a huge catherdral with excellent acoustics, with a sound that grabs you from all sides and fully integrates you into the sound experience. In the middle of it – instead of just being there! One of the best Dolby Atmos audio productions so far.

Mein Test-Equiment:

Studio 1 (High End):

• 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
• 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
• 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (Rear)
• 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (Subwoofer)
• 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
• Auralic Altair (Audio Streaming Client mit max. 32 Bit / 384 kHz)
• NVIDIA Shield Pro mit Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz für  Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
• AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
• Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
• Yamaha MX -A5000 (Power Amp)
• Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision

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