12″, Das Drehmoment, 2007
www.das-drehmoment.net
Suicide Booth are a rather recent project, brought together by Spif Anderson and Stefan Fenzel, with guest vocals by Ruediger Knapp and Florian Wagner. The boys like B-Movies, and it does show through. However futurist, the almost retro sci-fi feeling to their songs makes them rather likeable on the first listen.
“Aura” is quite diverse, however. While the first two songs have vocoded vocals – being the title track “Aura” almost Wave-ish and a good reminder of old science fiction themes – the EP goes on to show some diversity which will easily fit the musical explorations of many people. There’s no way to avoid the 80’s in here, and even an almost new romanticism revival in “Rendezvous” (with guest singer Ruediger Knapp). This EP also includes a mix for “Rendezvous” by Divider, appropriately entitled of “Cosmic Mix”, which totally remakes the song, making it as pleasurable of a new experience as the original, slower and groovier while trashing some of the original intentions of the artists, but respectfully and very well achieved, which can’t often be found. The track “Raumpilot” is a dynamic instrumental that warps through time and would be an excellent final track would there not be the extra goodness of the Divider mix after it.
Despite the obvious influences and similarities to many 80’s genres, “Aura” has a sort of intemporality to it which would probably make it a great record had it been released anywhere between the 1960’s and the 2030’s, and maybe even beyond. There’s a little of everything in this rather short EP, and we will definitely be looking forward to new releases by this German duo. Suicide Booth and their electronic retro minimalistic soundscapes can easily make your day (or your night). The only issue on this record is that it is only an EP and therefore way too short.
[7/10]
— Gonçalo Vasco