Every month or so we get a new album from this guy Uwe, and somehow he never seems to compromise the quality of his music despite such an overwhelming release schedule. And you thought Phloyd were prolific?! Well, once again, Atom Heart amazes with a release that might, at least superficially, remind you of an older Faxlabel release, Orange. Apparently, orange was Uwe's favorite color when that album was being made, and this time it's brown. This album isn't similar to the bleakscapes explored with Orange's [monochrome stills]. Musically, we've got a whole new ball game. In fact, I'm not so sure Uwe's even playing ball anymore....

My first impression of this disc was that it was a bit too clangy for me, but upon closer inspection (which often takes months) that aspect of the album seemed to diminish while the plentiful stylized melodies embedded in most of the tracks gradually won me over. Brown is a very musical album overall that will (once again) seize your temporal lobes by surprise.

Planned for release back in April of '96, Brown was held up in U.S. customs because the worldly, cultured people working there couldn't quite conceive of someone wanting to release an album with no writing or imagery whatsoever on the outside of it. Music with no commercialized packaging, no song titles, NO BAND COVER-PHOTO?!?! We'll just have to hold on to this shipment, they concluded. And they did. It was subsequently displaced into the "stratified entry program" and the actual stateside release was delayed for weeks. In fact, many Heart-o-philes had the next release, HAT, before they could even get their eager hands on Brown. It was decided that if each copy of Brown had a "Made In Germany" sticker on it, it was allowed. Why that should make a difference remains a mystery, considering there was already a German labelcode ("LC6269") on the bottom of the back cover. But enough with unnecessary setbacks caused by myopic governing bodies, it's time to get into summa these fine vibes!

• Coloursoul - Look out everyone it's haaarrrrrd coooore! THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP! But wait! Some benevolent being is softening the HardCore bassdrum, it's... becoming soft it's... melting away... A momentary lapse of beats that leaves you hanging on the edge your stereophonic sofa, and then aaahhhh, a cool splash of music hits you in the face. A stylin' yet scratchy drum pattern lays down the rhythm, how does he do it? We'll walk to border between the silky sweet smoothness of Uwe's melodic contours and the harshness of a jagged digital drumset. Sterile, yet down an dirty. A there's a message for you....

• Planters Punch - I always have to chuckle inwardly about the way this track opens up. The sound gives me flashbacks of that dude in Beat Street playing the 2 cowbells along with his turntables... a timeless image, yes. The fun picks up immediately with no time wasted as the soul-low flows effortlessly from Atom Heart's nimble fingers, channeled through the machines, and into your ears. Playful, carefree Muzak. And after a mere 3 minutes of it we've got another meltdown on our hands. The bassline retreats, some other atmospheric sounds appear, and soon after the rhythms drop out completely and you're left floating shapeless above the electronic wildlife scampering about. We drift unnoticeably into the next track...

• While My Synthe Gently Sweeps - Fireflies, music boxes, pots and pans... this is beginning to sound like a digitized camping trip. Here are some sounds that will pulsate you into a catnap... beneath the tree canopy. They follow a loose pattern, along with a deep boomy bass that eases itself in with a gentle rumble. That trademark oscillating tone we can find on several other RI releases is here as well. And another Beatles reference, what are we up to, four now? A peculiar track, indeed. Don't know how, but it works just fine!

• Machines Are O.K.! - What's that you say?!

• It's So Cool (I Can't Help It) - Scratching, it's the Jockey sensation that spread like wildfire ever since Whodini, U.T.F.O., and Run-DMC roamed the lands. For those of us who can only take so much of these clever hippy-hoppin' turntablist antics, the humor factor at work here is high. You've all seen this DJ, he can be found in so many music scenes around the world. He promises only the phatest of beatz, and in an effort win the crowd over with his charming skillzzz, he finds himself trapped in a self-induced hypnotic loop, finger wobbling back and forth over the shiney black slab-o-wax. And the sound of it is just so inescapably curious! He can't stop, it's the degree of control and the physics of the vibrationz that gets him all caught up, oblivious to the crowd who's getting sick of it right about now. Shake it, shake it...

• The One After 808 - In one channel we hear, "123123123123123" while back over on the opposite side we hear "123451234512345." All the while a heavy 4/4 thump counts out a solid beat. The number streams overlap at different, accumulating intervals. Get hooked on headphonics. A similar technique to this rainbow-reading number-counting scheme has showed up more recently on the album by Boards of Canada. Perhaps it's a method of getting people more familiar with the various other time signatures that the different instruments are following. Perhaps not. Either way, this is a pretty cool track.

• Double AdventureWhat could that mean? The first 10 seconds is a dead giveaway: this track is both fast *and* slow. The beat kicks in, and this heavy rhythmic artillary tells us that Uwe has decided to take the high road. It's more difficult, but it's quicker. So much going on here. The synths squeak and squeal, tweaking in every conceivable direction. That's the thing with this album, the chaos would sometimes be too much if it weren't for the beats keeping everything in balance. The beats keep you on the right track. This is some fluid, hi-res fractal IDM, complete with stuttering, dyslexic drums.

• Male Box - This track was included on the Real Intelligence II compilation (RI041). Complex sequences of plastic basslines, popping snares, and sprinkles of hi-hats fill the cracks in between. "It's a male box." This track is really weird, cryptic and brief narrations while the beats roll. There's not much in the way of melody on this particular track, other then the typical RI chirps and the frantic bass. But the track does go through several different phases, so there's plenty here to keep you focused.

• Backward - Here's a real smoker! We start out with the talking Mac, "Forward" it says, followed by a tone that rises in frequency. And then, "Backward" and the same tone comes back down. And this section repeats, "backward [tone], backward [tone]..." and then you notice the voice is shifted through a filter which constantly changes the quality of the voice. Some pattern warm basseys get the song rollin'. This is the preamble. "Back-Back-Back..." and we're in zone 2. A little melody here and the warm familiar bass pulses propel you onward. At 2:50 we get some freestyle piano thrown in, it's just what the track needed, too. Backward... Backward... Backward... Backward... Backward... drawkcaB

• Music - It's the sound of it.