Christian Kleine ~ Real Ghosts
Although an active
music-maker for more than a decade, Kleine’s star has risen more steeply
since calendars turned over to the new millenium. Real Ghosts is his second
long player for German idm/pop label City Centre Offices who also play host
to the likes of Arovane and Ulrich Schnauss. Real Ghosts delivers a varied
set of ten songs whose market differentiation is achieved by the presence
of that once revolutionary instrument, the electric guitar, as well as occasional
bass and even harmonica. Kleine, previously known as an exclusively electronic
producer, successfully melds the two potentially disparate types of instrumentation
into a streamlined, sophisticated whole. First track Home’s neo-hiphop
beats drive alternating sections of muted guitar heroics and ambience. Like
The Clouds, Like The Sky introduces some thrumming dub bass, gilded with occasional
harps, while Ghostwriting prangs with loud metallic guitar which almost but
not quite obliterates everything else. If Joy Division and Durutti Column
producer Martin Hannett were still around, perhaps he’d be producing
music a little like this. Real Ghosts achieves a convincing sense of flow
and its welcome sonic variety carries frequent hints of the cinematic. Kleine’s
sound, though not exactly groundbreaking, is crisp, fresh and highly enjoyable.
Colin Buttimer
October 2004
Published by Signal
To Noise magazine