This Bliss
Label: Dial
Length: LP
Website: http://www.panthaduprince.com/
Release Date: 2007-01-29
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: This Bliss
Sometimes it’s all in a name. This Bliss is built of bright, headphones-ready tech-house, where decaying bleep spreads and digital synths resound far more prominently than do the gentle beats beneath them. (The Artist Sometimes Known As) Pantha du Prince is only one of several monikers under which German producer Hendrik Weber operates, and the aptly described rewards offered on his sophomore full-length are many. Weber crafts some intricate dance-floor works on This Bliss, but they often convulse in punchy, clipped chimes (‘Eisbadenâ?�) and with cinematic-sized energy in his nearly overbearing synth string arrangements (‘Saturn Strobeâ?�), so that enjoying the album in a crowded bar would be an arduous task. But as Weber puts the light out on This Bliss with ‘Seeds of Sleepâ?�’s nightmarish, sprawling chord progressions and a distant, clanging metal loop, its quickening heartbeat pulse seems to beg for this number to be enjoyed with cheery company.
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2007.