- There's no getting around two things with Desolate's debut album for Fauxpas Musik. #1: It's Sven Weisemann. #2: It's among the best albums Burial never made. These two things are related, of course. Weisemann's work under his own name, especially Xine, has often had the same sense of melancholy as the aforementioned UK producer's garage and dubstep compositions. Weisemann only seems to marry his distinctively milky piano and dubby basslines to a syncopated beat as Desolate, though. So while it'd be easy to say that it's someone pinching Burial, given the context that it's Weisemann at the controls, you can hear it as the Berlin-based producer doing 2-step the only way he knows how.
This isn't meant to absolve Weisemann of sounding like Burial. It's merely to explain that he comes by it honestly. Listen to his minimalist piano compositions, and you'll know that he likes the black keys the best. Listen to his latest 12-inch for Mojuba, and you'll know he understands arranging instrumental music as well as anyone. That he succeeds at producing three (or four, if you believe he's the man behind Just Another Beat's Jouem project) different strands of dance music is a little bit mind-boggling. For those who've seen his energy behind the decks as a DJ, though, it's probably not that surprising. He's a guy that seems to play as if every record is his last—even when it's sedate deep house.
I don't know where "Divinus" fits into Weisemann's sets. Or if he plays these tracks at all. They seem to fit better as the warm-up or the come-down. While there are beats on nearly every song, they merely serve as accompaniment. The Invisible Insurrection is mood music first, electronic music second, dance music sixth or seventh.
One of the drawbacks of Weisemann's Xine was its length. With the same feelings being explored over the course of 20 miniatures, it felt like it could have been at least eight tracks shorter with little problem. The vinyl version of The Invisible Insurrection only has nine, and it's a perfectly pitched 36 minutes that has short ideas (both "Farewell" tracks) and showcase centerpieces on each side ("Cathartic" and "Divinus"). Hard to say whether this was judicious editing (doubtful) or the limitations of the vinyl format (more likely), but it simultaneously leaves you wanting more and secure in the knowledge that you actually don't need it.
Tracklist A1 Imagination
A2 Follow Suit
A3 Cathartic
A4 Farewell #1
A5 Aviance
B1 Pain
B2 Divinus
B3 Farewell #2
B4 Avian Flu