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Despite the decidedly Germanic inflection of his alias, Bogenschutzer is in fact Australian composer Matt Archer. Coming straight outta Melbourne, Archer has produced an album of contemplative music from the sanctuary of his DesTone home studio.
Simple City is immediately impressive as Archer opens with the dreamy bass odyssey of The Arrival. The immersive quality of this track is testament to the transportative potential of atmospheric, instrumental music. This is quintessential headphone fodder, best enjoyed in dimly lit solitude where a pair of Sennheisers can magnify the spatial nature of his sparse compositions.
Under pinned by a sly hip hop break to create infectious off-kilter groove, Slow Morning is a slithering exclusion into increasingly dubby territory. The breakbeat is a recurrent reference point in Archer’s sound and is juxtaposed with his retro synths in a way might suggest a distant influence of the preeminent Boards of Canada. Archer is no imitator though, and has carved an intriguing niche with his sound.
Bogenschutzer maintains a consistently blissful tone with the aptly titled Another Dream. Droning guitars are set against tinkling bittersweet melodies and wonky organs from another era. Again, Archer uses a hip hop beat to propel his luscious sound, but with added flavour as a flurry of beats edits add a subtle glitch element to his palette. Superbly detailed, engrossing and most importantly, rolling.
The fourth track is the title track of the album and it contrasts with the remainder of material by virtue of being almost twice the duration of Archer’s concise compositions. Pulsating melodies create a warm bed of sound for two minutes before even a beats drops, but when it does… oh my days. Dusty, distant drum breaks again reference the hip hop aesthetic but in a manner removed from the braggadocio and bombast of New York’s most famous musical export. Archer’s innate sense of restraint again reveals itself as he builds tension before a bassline makes its mammoth presence felt four minutes into the track. Simple City is a potent mix of hip hop, dub and electronica that entrances the listener for its full duration.
Strangely, Archer veers into a chintzy retro space lounge stylee with the quasi-funk of Short Ride. After the superbly atmospheric pieces that precede it, this track feels oddly unsophisticated by comparison. The remainder of Simple City fails to reach the lofty heights of its opening gambit as Archer wallows in noodly, emotive sketches that frequently verge on tweeness. Melodies tinkle and shimmer with glacial majesty, but the rolling bass which propelled the first half of the album is sorely missed. When he does up the pace with the throbbing synth funk of Freeway Design, Archer doesn’t appear quite as convincing as when he creates his more introspective moments.
Simple City is anything but simple as Bogenschutzer’s assured approach to composition ensures that each piece is imbued with nuance for the listener to gradually unravel. However his evidently academic sense of musicianship frequently overrides his sense of groove, much to the detriment of this album. Thankfully the first four tracks of this album succeed in being fantastically atmospheric and grooving, that his penchant for occasional navel gazing can be forgiven.
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