Rocket in the Pocket March 21, 2000

Here he is, the guy on the machine; Console (aka Martin Gretschmann) lets the circuitboard burn. As sound-o-naut for the Notwist, he stormed the charts, appearing from the almost mythical village of Weilheim in Bavaria, and now, as Console, he produces the coolest, deepest electro-sounds from the box.

Rocket in the Pocket is the second Console album, and manages extreme funkiness without a 4-on-the-floor vibe. It's a medley of the rarest sounds, which could spring as easily from hyperspace as from your vegetable patch. But the airy, arabesque soundscapes do not grow aimlessly, they form complex compositions -- or, more precisely, songs. So diverse the lines, so colorful the sounds, so free-flowing the rhythms that it forces the listener to formulate everything in their own head, leaving them with no other choice than to dance and whistle along.

Console is no functional sound wallpaper designed for social technicians, but rather music that is in some way organic. Samples from everyday sounds and other audio waste, bands and hacked up sax-melodies muted to digital growling, tweeting, humming and beeping. Not coincidentally then, song tiles such as "Delay Dackel," "Walk Like a Worm" or "Dolphin Dos" remind you of a hybrid techno-biotic bestiary or a Tamagotchi.

Which brings us to the point. While the first Console album Pan or Ama was still "a liberation attempt against all social constraints" (Spex), Rocket in the Pocket converts this newfound freedom supremely into really hot shit, namely pop. The title track is simple and moving toward commerciality, without compromising its complexity and conforming to the usual rigid formulas. This freedom enables the cool humor and integration of outdated 80s sounds like Simmons Drums, Casio Grooves and Orchestra-Tutti-Beats, which is no longer an ironic gesture but attention to detail. Then, of course, there's the smash hit "14 Zero Zero;" a love song from a computer to its programmer, it's a nod to electropop classics of years past, as well as the love song for the new millennium.

Console comes in multi-player mode: analog and digital, shape and freedom, jazz and pop, animal/man and machine . . . and presents with it an understanding with which even Lara Croft and John Coltrane could identify.