OUR UTOPIE

The second single from Mme Allien™s spring LP Dust, which is currently brightening up spirits still withered from a lack of light, arrives just in time to summon the rising sun. The summer is on its way, and that means it™s open- air season, complete with pollen-fuelled confusion, after parties under blue skies and visions of a better world. šOur Utopie› radiates this epic vitality, embodies the exhilarating feeling that something is just beginning here that affects us all: šThe sky, the taste... we count 1... 2... 3... and we™re still here.š Eyes closed, breathing in the birdsong and feeling the breeze tingling through your hair as it only ever does in the morning hours of a world-class rave. Yes, you could call this an anthem of love. Using such a serene, floating synth line, a melody as soft as butter and a break which could bring the toughest of us to our knees, Ellen postulates her theory of soul-filled techno in a time of peace. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine anyone being capable of waging war with this sound ringing in their ears. So let™s remind ourselves: make love... you know the rest. This is immediately followed on A2 by the unanswerable question: šShould We Go Home› Already? Should we or do we have to? Do we want to? In any case, now is not the right time to make such a choice. Not yet... one more tune, one more cigarette, one more drink. But it™s also such a tricky question right now when planes are starting to merge together, voices are becoming blurred and the night is breaking into day. All shapes are elusive, all surfaces are glistening, everything™s a mystery. But then the beat returns, restores order to the proceedings, to this game of multiple of sounds which wind around your head and are able to transform right angles into a gentle digital twittering. And there's the voice of the siren again, getting lost amongst the layers as they pile up to monumental heights. Psychedelia 2010. What was that? Yeah, I think we™ll stay for a bit actually... At least for a lightly scampering house number like šEver›. What else can happen now anyway? The confusion has gone, the daylight floods into our bodies and we™re just starting to reach the point of blissful dissolution. Existence feels as light as a feather right now, and the difficulties of the past can be distinguished so clearly... This must be one of those moments which we will remember when telling someone of the free and easy life of our youth, of a glimpse of being without wanting for anything. The glockenspiel flutters around the souls lying in the grass; organic textures nuzzle warmly around our necks and the cavorting bassline keeps our minds clear and alert. Only a Sunday afternoon on the banks of the Spree could sound so soft and fluffy. Surely the most pleasurable way to end an EP which answers to the name Utopia. That leaves one last song, which  rather than trailing off  points out the onward direction. A new day bringing new light and a fresh chance. šSearching› gets off to a gallop with its tight bass drum and light-footed percussion, whilst the synths evoke the same sense of self-contentment that was established in the three previous tracks. Nevertheless, there is a growing tension inherent in Ellen™s bonus track, a reignited urgency. Her searching words disintegrate into a thousand different tones, a revolving polyphony which finally turns into a spiralling rave signal. Then a cautious break, little criss-crossed voices pitched in the heavens, hands feeling their way around. But then the next moment the kick springs back to life and the glowing bassline starts gravitating towards the sun, whose glistening rays perpetually hide its shape from view. A track which tells of searching for love and finding it: never has utopia been this close... A1) Our Utopie (Extended Version) A2) Should We Go Home (Extended Version) B1) Ever (Extended Version) B2) Searching