(01.29.08) Aube is back with two releases to inaugurate the New Year. 2007 saw Aube coming to life with two immense records, the italo flavoured Hold Me by Jupitar Black and the space electro odyssey of Hommage An Die Jugend Europas by Roland Sebastian Faber which received high praise in the 2007 CBS Top 100. The imprint has started 08 with two slices of new wave electro by the team of Roland Faber and Kai Lüdeling aka Starcluster. The Starcluster EP gives the listener three servings of synth pop action with an electro edge, with Marc Almond of Soft Cell giving his vocals to the B Side. Following alongside the Starcluster EP is the Smoke and Mirrors remix project, featuring two alternate versions of “Smoke and Mirrors” and two by a new electronic outfit by the name of The Fascination Movement.
Faber and Lüdeling open their Starcluster account with “Dachlucke.” The track has a similar space feel to Faber’s Hommage An Die Jugend Europas, with lofty synthlines shooting across waves of beat and bass. The track has a wonderful galactic disco feel, a light melodious start to the EP. The B-Side opens with perhaps the most intriguing track of the release, “Smoke & Mirrors” featuring vocals from Marc Almond. The piece comes to life with some smooth synth before Almond’s vocals float in. The tempo of the track is dancefloor friendly with an addictive quality. The chorus is heady and infectious, a blend of Almond’s vocals and vocoder action. “Winter Of Ice” closes this three tracker. Powerful drumulator style synths open the track before lightly vocoded lyrics ghost in. The new wave synth sound of the EP is extremely prominent in the track, with synthesizer cascades and crescendos leading to human and vocoder lyrics. An awesome synth solo breaks the track before it climaxes to a close.
Smoke & Mirrors Remix EP features four versions of the Starcluster EP track, two by The Fascination Movement and the remainder by Starcluster themselves. The A-Side starts off with “Smoke & Mirrors (The Fascination Movement Vocal Version).” The Fascination 
Movement are a growing electro outfit from Seattle. They add a new synth style to the original version, whilst keeping the vocals and vocoder. New breaks are injected, with more of a split beat, to create an interesting twist. The Fascination Movement serve up their Dub version next, employing the second track rhetoric of 80s records. The human vocals are abandoned as the synthesizers become more pronounced and the vocoder lyrics dominate. The B-Side begins with Starcluster’s Alternate Version of “Smoke & Mirrors.” A mix friendly drumulator sound opens this interpretation, with Almond’s lyrics breaking that bit earlier than the original. The vocals are that bit more stressed in this take, with the synthesizers propping up the lines before the chorus break where Starcluster push their analogue sound through into a rapturous dancefloor piece. The vocoders are sidelined for this version, giving the track a new energy and feel as pianoesque keys are tapped in as the work develops. Like the A-Side, Starcluster offer up their Dub version to end the record. The track, in Dub form, has focused on the instruments leaving the lyrics out completely bar Almond’s haunting chorus section.
Aube, with ever release, is proving itself a label of style, substance and sound. The reception received by the Jupitar Black and Roland Sebastian Faber tracks was an immediate indicator of the quality that the Dusseldorf imprint is producing. The Starcluster records are solidifying that quality. The two new pieces are heavily influenced by the synth pop sound, the synthesizers, the crisp beat and heady lyrics. Yet Starcluster are adding their own freshness and purpose to the addictive sound of sytnhesizer melodies, enveloping their love for the past in a neo disco energy and electro enthusiasm.
Starcluster + Smoke & Mirrors Remix are both out now on Aube.
