Sarah Goldfarb & JHK - ‘Heartbeat City’

Sarah Goldfarb & JHK - ‘Heartbeat City’
February 2010
[Treibstoff ]
85%
Matt Dockerty

We should start out by mentioning Sarah Goldfarb is a bloke, the band named after Ellen Burstyn's character in the movie Requiem for a Dream. I cannot claim to have seen the film, but I have had a proper listen to this album over the last couple of weeks – mainly, it turns out, because it is worth some listening to…

As far as techno albums go, there is usually a great divide between listening albums and collections of songs which were originally intended for the dancefloor (or worse, intended for singles). An album should stand up by itself as an autonomic unit of music, each song leading into the next seamlessly to create a journey deserving of a collective title. Thankfully, this is exactly what we have here: a listening album, but one from which one or two dance floor nuggets can also be mined.

The opening tracks are pleasingly ambient and mood-building. In 'The Noise Electric' TR-808 tom noises lead against a background of clever string arrangements demonstrating the kind of intelligent music to be expected from this collaboration. This leads neatly into 'Jacki', which introduces more elements of techno into the music and has a subdued, dramatic orchestral feel which is at home on this album as it would be acting as mood music for a Hollywood film.

As the album progresses the subtle hints of techno give way to some rather more blatant beats. The 808 drum sounds present throughout the remainder of the album stutter pleasingly from ear to ear in 'Just a Holiday,' and settle into a more conventional form by the time it gets to 'Lights at Night'. Having listened to more DJ mixes than I care to mention, this album is flawless in its transition from quiet ambient music to hypnotic, four-to-the-floor, beats.

After the build-up and a few mellow techno tracks the album branches off. 'Golden Sun' swaps the common-time beats for a dubbier feel. Then we head off into ambience again with 'Never Stop' where some broken up vocal samples and tom sounds form a lush soundscape before reintroducing the beats and finishing off with some overtly trance-y techno from title track 'Heartbeat City'.

Throughout the album you get the impression you are listening to two very accomplished artists. The mixing is constantly empty enough to hear everything that is going on clearly despite there being quite a lot going on at any one time. Most importantly, the tracks fit together and produce a consistent feel from start to finish graduating it from 'collection of songs' to 'album'. Despite the genre lending itself to this sometimes there are no moments of endless repetition, each new phrase of music offering something new to listen to.

If I was to say anything negative about the album it would just be that I would have liked to have heard a distinctive motif or two to give it a bit more definition. The brilliant mood-setters seem to all head directly to other mood-setters but don't let that put you off. This is a great, chilled techno album by two very capable artists: it’s a good candidate to stick on your MP3 player but, more likely, will soundtrack many a post-club carry on.


1. Here we come
2. The noise electric
3. Jacki
4. Just a holiday
5. So long
6. Lights at night
7. Back in town
8. Golden sun
9. Never stop
10. Heartbeat City