MELOTRON – Sternenstaub

We all know that Melotron create hits easily, so grading an album with abacus, pen and paper to write down the numbers doesn’t apply in their case. Phrases like: ”Abundance of dancefloor smashes”, “A ton of crowd pleasers” and such… sound truly stupid don’t they? In this case, the only measure would be their previous work, namely “Weltfrieden” – release that launched them to the top of German electro pop.

As pre-announced by Edgar Slatnow in our interview (may 03), “Sternenstaub” contains no additives, just pure electronics. His lyrics still are a wonderful collection of metaphores and stylised thoughts of people, their lives and desires. Critical but positive in design, they truly complement the music (or it is other way around?) casting darker shade over flowing pop themes. Andy Kruger continued producing amazing melodies, and his singing is convincing now more than ever. With clear misses in construction of slower songs, namely ‘Digital’ and ‘Lilienthals Traum’ from “Weltfrieden” that are now perfected into ‘Das Letzte’ and ‘Mediensturm’ and of course, magnificent ‘Immer noch’, this new album is better musically. A momentum of “Weltfrieden” is missing though, “Sternenstaub” has not been created in a breath it seems. Somehow, and I really can’t explain the notion that it is heavier, with less drive. Even though you will easily find many faster tracks, each better than the other, overall picture of this album would truly be of a stardust cloud. ‘Folge mir ins Licht’ found it’s place again, with boosted version, and ‘Der Kosmonaut’ sounds as if Kraftwerk continued making good music. Hm.. I said I’m not going to mention hits…

This album is not a ground-moving work, it’s predecessor did that task. It simply continues and lengthens path of success for the East-German trio. Their position on the throne of synth-pop is even stronger now. Ihre Musik ist Sternenstaub, und wirklich, Melotron sind Sterne.

I remembered now that I promised that if Melotron creates an album as good as “Weltfrieden” again, I’d convert to a true synth-pop fan… word must be kept… does anyone know where I can buy used Wolfsheim CDs?