Plonk Music Label.
Sector One is the project name Roland Snickars, who is from Stockholm, in Sweden, uses and
originally started making music under that name in the late 1980s, releasing several albums and EPs.
The first track on the new album is the title track and what a way to introduce the album, vocoded vocals and superb Bass parts and sequencers join forces with warm synth sounds and wonderful choir chords, excellent use of phone sound effects, one of the best tracks I have heard in a long time and I was delighted to be asked by Roland to make a video for the song (link to the video can be found below), it of course tells the story of how we communicate and interact with each other. The track
blends into Part 2 of the song, which continues like an extended 80s 12 inch single, with added synth lines and pads, an excellent way to develop the track, across 2 parts we have 11 minutes of pure electronica that Kraftwerk themselves would be proud of.
"I Hear Voices" originally featured on the Plonk compilation "We Are Machine Pop 3" in a slighly longer format. The introduction is very Kraftwerk, with superb use of pads and choir sounds, working alongside the warm sequencer patterns, it's quite an upbeat track, the sequencer parts that kick in around the 1 min 40 sec mark are simply fantastic and are what makes the track, it drives the last half of the song, It reminded me of a Science Fiction theme tune, another great track.
"A Little Melody" is an outstanding track, superbly crafted sequencers that really are the focal point of the song, strong bass-line and rhythm that hold the track together perfectly, with a sprinkling of synth sounds, vocoded vocals and melodies. This is another song that could easily have been written by Kraftwerk.
Next we have a song devoted to the inventor of Morse code "Samuel F.B. Morse" and what a tribute it is to the man. I once again love the choir chords that introduce the track along with actual morsecode samples, we then get a spoken history of Morse Code, also against the haunting Choir chords which are really effective. The melody line in the track is simple, but my word, does it pack a punch, it sounds beautiful. This alongside "Telecommunication" are my favourite tracks on the album, quite simply it is a masterpiece.
Next we have another track I am familiar with "Kommunikation", which appeared on the "We Are
Machine Pop 2" compilation. A very melodic track set against haunting strings and choir sounds, again fantastic Bass-Line and sequencers on the track, excellent use of Vocoders and voice samples as well. Quite a lot of layers to this song and I like the way it develops.
"Can Machines Be Sad?", of course they can! That said, this has upbeat overtones and has well crafted melody lines. Roland has replicated sounds similar to what you hear on Kraftwerk's "Pocket calculator" to great effect. Fantastic beat on this song too, excellent use of effects on the vocals. First half is, as I say, quite upbeat, and midway through the song the sad elements take centre stage, before the last section brings us back to uplifting "pop". A well crafted track.
The album closes with the track "The Comminucations Satellite", heavily dominated by the rhythm section before we are treated to the melodic parts that glue the track together, Roland is not only good at creating brilliant sequencer parts, he is also very clever at generating melodies, that is evident throughout the whole album. Definitely the most uplifting track on the album. A perfect way to close the album
It should not be underestimated how importnat the Plonk Music Label is on the independent Electronic Music scene, they are home to some wonderful talent, in addition to Sector One they also have on their roster, Datapop, Neon, Deutsche Bank, Maschine Brennt, Unisonlab, Kevin Lux and Kretz. Already in recent months we have seen brilliant albums released on CD by Datapop, Maschine Brennt and Unisonlab and this album fits nicely alongside those.
This is undoubtably Roland's finest piece of work to date, a flawless piece of work and is an album you really must invest in, you won't be disappointed 10/10
You can purchase the album from Bandcamp here, the digital download also includes the HD video of the title track by Gary Hunter:
https://sector-one.bandcamp.com/album/telecommunication
Sector One can be found on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/Oldschoolsynth/
The video for the title track "Telecommunication can be found on Youtube here:
https://youtu.be/txqaaqDkuHM
Find out more about the artists on the Plonk Music Label here:
http://plonk.nu/
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