Yello - Time Lab (2Lp)

Facts Boris Blank constructs his imaginary soundtracks from countless small elements, a combination of freshly minted samples and fragments from his archive. Any Yello track is therefore by definition old and new at the same time. Around the Sun - the first single taken from Timelab - places a Dieter Meier recording from the early days in a contemporary sound context. Break Out combines a blast of classic Blank brass with staccato Meier for a rousing call to action against laziness. Spin Back re-imagines Spinning My Mind from the last Yello album Point (released in 2000) in a 1980s costume. Streets of Berlin references The Race and was recorded for the forthcoming next series of Babylon Berlin. With Dieter Meier’s bravura spoken word performance of Zebra, Timelab reaches into the realms of science fiction: the text is a letter written in the 1970s by SF author Philip K. Dick. Sprinkled throughout the album we also have the three dreamily wistful songs contributed by a couple of old Yello friends, guest singers Heidi Happy and Malia. «Time doesn’t really exist in Yello music», says Boris Blank. Or, as Dieter Meier has it: «To the future, through the past».