camera: emotional detox

"Started as the so-called 'Krautrock Guerrilla' in 2012, six years later the Berlin combo Camera are releasing their fourth full-length album, Emotional Detox. Customarily associated with the likes of NEU! and La Düsseldorf it is time to allow Camera to break free of the krautrock tradition. For fans of nominative determinism, there can be few more apposite appelations than Michael Drummer. He is the catalyst, linking everything together as he crosses the soundscape of everything captured on Camera. The band's moniker Camera, meanwhile, is an altogether more capricious calling card. Emotional Detox is the fourth full-length album by Camera, now a quintet, following two albums as a trio and one as a duo. The line-up here comprises Steffen Kahles, Drummer, Michel Collet, Andreas Miranda and Timm Brockmann, all based in Berlin. Drummer is the only constant through all four phases. Brockmann, who left the group in 2014, returns to the fold. He and Franz Bargmann, who left Camera the year before him, released the duo album Licht, a celebration of keys, guitars and effects which, at times, emulated the ferocious potential of Camera. By the time Kahles joined the band, Brockmann had already departed, so the new ensemble adds another twist in bringing together two keyboard players from different Camera phases for the first time. The Brockmann-Drummer reunion, meanwhile, completes a circle tracing back to early Camera experiences shared in 2010/11, playing on the streets of Berlin. Paradoxically, the new Camera line-up sharpens the group's focus. With Drummer not so much joining the dots as hammering them home with a nail gun, the stronger framework allows even greater freedom for the musicians to express and align their disparate creative interests. The soundscape here assumes the quality of a cinematic loop, like watching the same film over and over, yet discovering new things each time it plays. The motorik origins of the band on their debut Radiate! eventually gave way to the playfulness on Phantom of Liberty. A spirit of experimentation still abounds on the new LP, but there's also evidence that the group have taken a step towards something more pop. The reference points are still there, but Emotional Detox is not dependent on them, encouraging us to disregard these multiple distractions." --Harry Calvino