With the exception of those listed above, every track on this record is fantastic (which makes them nine for fourteen-not a bad batting average). In fact, Dave Gahan may want to thank his lucky stars that his song-writing bandmate didn’t just use a vocoder and start Get Physical without him twenty years ago. Perhaps the least interesting moment on the album comes with the vaguely political title of “Hallelujah USA,” a trip-hop interlude with live bass near the album’s end.Īt their best, though-when they celebrate the possibility of synchronicity between mood and movement-Booka Shade make it clear that they are the robotic, electrohouse inheritors of the Depeche Mode legacy. If nothing else, putting two old tracks on a new record does little to convince someone that Movements should be listened to as an album.įurthermore, both the dynamic schizophrenia of “The Birds and the Beats/At the Window,” moving from Fulton-esque acid bass to throwaway soundtrack piano meanderings, and the brooding synths over Egyptian Lover beats on “Take a Ride” do little to excite. Conversely, “Mandarine Girl (Album Version)” is only slightly different that the original, shortened and with a few changes, but also feels out of place. As far as composition, this moody dub rework does little to illustrate what exactly was missing from the original that necessitated a second take. And for the listener, it feels anachronistic to go from a brilliant new track, “Night Falls,” to last-summer’s-hit redux.
Putting it second on the album suggests a lack of confidence in newer material. That songwriting comes into play on two tracks re-released on Movements: the 2005 club classics “Body Language” and “Mandarine Girl.” “Body Language (Reinterpretation)” is a disappointment in both placement and composition.
At a time when software can nearly write itself, Walter and Arno serve as a reminder that no matter how self-automated the process may be, humans always provide the raw material. And unlike many of their contemporaries, Booka Shade is concerned with songwriting. He title of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier’s second full-length goes deeper than dancing- Movements is like a symphony: progressing through several moods and genres.