Short Reviews [Soniq Theater – 2022 – "Robotron"]

Needless to say, at the beginning of this year Alfred Mueller sent out his latest release. I have often thought that Alfred must be a machine in that at the beginning of every year there is a new album, this being his twenty-third, and he must have been thinking along the same lines as musically this is very much a thematic release based on robots. Now, with no vocals or lyrics to carry the story it can be difficult to produce something which makes one think of a certain subject or style, but if I played this to you and asked you to listen all the way through and ask you what you felt it made you think of I am pretty sure you would answer “Robots”. I do find it quite amusing in that “Robert Dance” makes one immediately think of Kraftwerk, as in many ways that was their intention, and there are times when this album also moves more into Tangerine Dream territory than normal, which again is probably not too much of a surprise given how much they have contributed to film scores. There is the impression that this is a more light-hearted release than many of his, and there are some quite definite Eighties flavours throughout, with “Robot Food” again making one thing of the New Wave and synth movement which came out in the early Eighties. He is often moving more into a pop/dance/electro area than the normal progressive one, and the result is something which I more appreciate than enjoy. This album is much more for fans of his other works as opposed to something to delve in to see what his music is like, as for that I would turn instead to ‘Cinemagic’, but it is great to see that even after this many albums Alfred is still looking to surprise and experiment in new fields.