Silizium is as long as an album, but there are nearly as many remixes as original mixes, so it appears to be designed more like an EP of stray tracks or a brief compilation. It's neither. Instead, the first five tracks work together as a single piece. For this part of the disc, recorded for a John Peel session, producer Sascha Ring is joined by vocalist Raz O'Hara as well as a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. As a whole, it brings Apparat closer to the kind of emotionally incisive chamber IDM nearly perfected by Telefon Tel Aviv on Map of What Is Effortless. It's only fitting that Telefon Tel Aviv are brought in to perform one of the remixes, and their spin on "Komponent" isn't radically different, though it is just as effective. Bus, Rechenzentrum, and Ring provide the other alternates.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo