CD: Kris Menace - Electric Horizon

There was time when “trance” was not a dirty word amongst connoisseurs of electronic music. It became, eventually, regarded as an aberration in the hip techno universe.

Gentlemen of a certain age still make statements such as “I only like real trance music, like Brian Eno and David Byrne.” They speak of pre-acid house music that is mantric, tribal, original and brilliant but “trance” came to mean something else, a Nineties style that was created by two German DJs, Sven Vath and Paul van Dyk, a bangin’ club soundtrack that combined the pulse of techno with the great melodic flourishes of romantic classical music. Around 1999 it conquered the UK club scene - nowadays it has taken over the globe yet never managed to be convincing as cool with tastemakers, notably in London.

Kris Menace (AKA German Christophe Hoeffel) doesn’t seem to care about all that. His music harks back to the work of Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre. Like the DJ James Zabiela he has started from scratch, ignoring recently developed prejudices and diving back into flowing analogue pulses and sweet wafting melodic synth lines. His album never really works up a head of steam but, by the same measure, it never allows the listener to wander away from its contagious throb.

It will possibly sound overly sweet to those reared on the stark techno of Detroit and its British imitators, but Menace’s third album offers a rich collection of driven instrumental electronic, psychedelic pop. It’s certainly not kowtowing to cheap vocal trance, indeed anyone who enjoyed Menace’s greatest tune, the driving “Fairlight” with French producer Fred Falke, will dig this album as it’s very much in the same vein. It simply flows along with a huge narcotised smile, When it’s late and a warm music that sits midway between Visage and Giorgio Moroder is needed, the ebb and flow of Electric Horizon works a treat.

Watch "Falling Star" - video created by Hexstatic