tracklist

01 undo undone

02 dreary musings

03 tighter claws

04 goase trip

05 sea of tranquility

06 detection

07 feast or famin

08 wooden spacecraft

09 red drumhead

all tracks written, performed and produced by me raabenstein,
vocals on ‚goase trip‘ by mark giannori,
guitars on ‚undo undone‘ by major major,
guitars on ‚dreary musings‘ by andreas koslik,
keyboards on ’sea of tranquility‘ and ‚detection‘ by volker meitz,
drums on ’sea of tranquility‘ by thomas wydler.

mastered by shapemod, berlin

artwork by simonraabenstein.com

distributed by nonine recordings

one month after his second solo release, me raabenstein presents the album ‘undo undone’ under a new moniker – alpha bubbah. playing around with several id’s is a typical nineties behaviour you might say, well, here’s to seperate different styles and thoughts on and around music – in other words, these are the sun-drowned penthouse rooms in the raabenstein building… the nine tracks on ‘undo undone’ focus more on melodic arrangements than the ‘typical’ broken raabenstein style, although there is still the pure joy of sonic experimentation to be heard. with a little help from good old friends from the early nonine days, the alpha bubbah project offers a coherent and embracing album, charming the audience with instintive freshness and a poetic electronic-jazz inspired ligthness, accentuated with tight drums and brooding synth colours. enjoy the melody !!!

enjoy the melody !!!

feedback

it’s been a while since i’ve heard such adventurous music in the electro-experimental field. this album is entirely built around a vast arsenal of electro-driven patterns and variations, acoustic instrumental brilliance and soulful jazzy vibes. the content is continuously captivating, sensuous, innovative and interlocking. i’ve listened to the whole album with an equal pleasure. ‚undo undone‘ starts this breathtaking musical ritual with a bombastic funkadelic electro epic which provides a large part to tripped-out sound experiments, retro organic chords, floating guitar waves and groovy bass / drumming electro sequences. could be the perfect spacious jazzy-funkadelic hymn. ‚dreary musings‘ delivers an obvious sense of progressiveness, bringing to the fore an other highly melodious and soulfully accomplished jazzy-electro improv.

with a spontaneous sense and a great instrumental talent, these compositions admit resonances with the funked out and energized musical world of herbie hancock, miles davis, embryo, kraan and with the obsessional hypno-electro beat dimension of idm figures such as tilliander, wolfgang voigt, heinrich dressel. ‚tighter claws‘ put the emphasis on blissfully pulsating electronic elements sustained by retro-ish organic chords in a clear cinematic moody style. ’see of tranquility‘ carries on sophisticated electro improvised environments admitting dense groovy bass lines, lysergic synth lines and psych-out effects. tracks such as ‚detection‘ (with its almost goblin-esque feel) and ‚wooden spacecraft‘ culminate the compositional dynamic with a highly inspired combination between perpetual sci-fi hypnotic electronic sequences and haunted cinematic ambiences.

‚undo undone‘ delivers well executed instrumentation’s with fruitful luminous ideas, deep basslines, achieved harmonic progressions, powerfully emotional energies centered on soundtracky ambiences and nice free-jazzy sounding experiments. a musical phenomenon and absolutely compelling release. definitely recommended for those who enjoy engaging, jazz-inflected electronica.
philippe blache, igloo magazine, usa 06/12

he’s not a jack-of-all-trades in the traditional sense—his musical diversity doesn’t come from the sheer number of tools he uses to channel his creativity. rather, the astonishing range of personas he adopts to shape different sonic languages, always with electronics at the core of his universe, makes german artist me raabenstein a kind of musical polyglot. and always with remarkable results.

his latest project, alpha bubbha, has just released undo undone, an album that takes a different route from the fractured rhythms that, in various forms, characterize much of raabenstein’s music. here, he seeks a hyperbolic, mechanized euphoria, playing at the edge of a confrontation between cold technical precision and the warm comfort of human touch. it’s a constant contrast between the security of the familiar and the enticing dive into crystal-clear yet uncharted waters, where hidden beneath the depths, small treasures of shifting colors await discovery.

undo undone maps a path that balances synthesized melodies with jazzy subtleties, wrapping each note in delicate layers of experimentation that, in this case, serve a sunlit, hedonistic celebration of pleasure. even when infused with elegant funky transparency—blurring the edges as confetti-like bursts of brightness fill the atmosphere—the album expands its invitation to fully immerse in the experience. yet another outstanding offering from a multi-faceted musician who consistently rejects the ordinary and renews his call for us to play his records on perpetual repeat.
pedro figueiredo portela, o dominio dos deuses, portugal 06/12

me raabenstein is slowly but surely creating a cataloging mess with his frequent name changes—whether for projects, collaborations, or pure solo albums. this is yet another ‘project’ where he is the sole creator, but once again, he has released it under a different name. musically and stylistically, it does differ somewhat from his usual approach, but if he continues with these constant rebrandings, it will be difficult not only to keep track but also to compile everything as part of his official discography. he’s bound to give music historians a massive headache. even i’ve lost count of how many of his albums, projects, compilations, and collaborations i’ve listened to and reviewed… here, with his old crew from the early days of founding nonine recordings, he ventures into a style influenced by the ‘80s, incorporating elements of glitch and electro-acoustics. however, the production spirit is unmistakably 21st-century. his collaborators on this album include major major and andreas koslik (guitars), volker meitz (keyboards), cave’s the bad seed thomas wydler (drums), and mark giannori (vocals). yet, they are essentially just guest musicians on one or two tracks, while raabenstein himself handles the bulk of the album’s production and instrumentation.

the album is entirely instrumental, with giannori appearing only as a dry spoken-word narrator on goase trip, while vocals—though not his, but raabenstein’s—surface in the closing track red drumhead. wydler’s drumming contribution is minimal, limited to just one track, sea of tranquility, and the other guest musicians seem to have added short instrumental parts to already completed material, resulting in more creatively expressive performances. the opening tracks, undo undone and dreary musings, are driven by subtle jazzy guitar references in smooth funk tempos, featuring strikingly similar melodic lines. the most intriguing collaboration, however, is hidden in the middle of the album on detection, where meitz experiments with an ambient acid-jazz keyboard treatment. while the rest of the album contains a few interesting ideas, raabenstein—despite his efforts to shift stylistic direction—always circles back to his recognizable pop-leaning tendencies. a mix of light experimentation, psychedelia, ear-pleasing melodies in chill-out and trip-hop rhythms, and minimalist electronic layering, all wrapped in polished production. it sits comfortably between commercial and alternative attributes, perfectly suited, as he describes in the press release, for his sunlit penthouse at the top of a berlin building. ocjena albuma [1-10]: 7
horvi, terapija.net, croatia, 06/12

listening in repeat mode. brillant !!!
pedro figueiredo portela, o dominio dos deuses, portugal 04/12

pretty dam sick !!  love the sea of sounds this is diving into. bravo !!
dee banse, canada 04/12

luv alpha bubbah !!!
ran slavin, tel aviv 04/12

very diverse range of trax, nice work… on first hearing sea of tranquility and wooden spacecraft impress me the most but im sure the lp is a grower…
corin arnold, bln.fm, germany 04/12

vielen dank ! wird mir das wochenende verschönern, ohne frage…
harry lachner, radiophon, swr2, germany 04/12

the album sounds really awesome, that’s what I’m looking for in music…
ralph echter , gentle media, the netherlands 04/12

das album klingt sehr spannend…
stephan steigleder, universal music, germany 04/12