tornado wallace: lonely planet

The accumulation of about four years of work, with tracks written in Berlin and Melbourne, Tornado Wallace's debut album Lonely Planet is nothing like what may have expected from the Australian expat. No stranger to fans and followers of ESP Institute, Beats In Space and Music From Memory's sister label Second Circle, Tornado Wallace's strain of releases, so far, merge functionality with a musical playfulness that led him to find himself as one of the producer's behind José Padilla's International Feel album So Many Colours. Here, he leaves the needs of the dancefloor behind in order to create a magical mystery tour de trance into his inner jungle. How about some references? New age sounds meet new wave melodies, Grace Jones runs into the Dire Straits at Compass Point while a Korg Mini Pops and a Roland CR78 make amends for Sly & Robbie's absence, Michael Mann pictures Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, Robert Rauschenberg tries his luck at naturalism and an imagined Wally Badarou echoes through all of it. Sandwiched between the title track and the yearning beauty of the album's final point "Healing Feeling", the listener will get all of that as well as collaborations with and contributions of No Zu, David Hischfelder and the voice of Sui Zhen on "Today", who would easily make Anna Domino take her proverbial hat off. With Lonely Planet, Tornado Wallace has created an album that supersedes the requirements and expectations of a debut. Like a lost Island Records or a never released Made To Measure album, Lonely Planet soundtracks notions and ideas that recall the nostalgic future in the past as much as it looks ahead.