o us, perfect music sounds sterile and dead.” -Michael Sandison from Boards of Canada


I don’t mean to sound judgmental or arrogant, but I’ve pretty much hung around smart people my whole life, mainly because I’m smart. I’d count it as a blessing, but it’s not like being smart gets you everything. What it does give you is a certain advantage when it comes to doing schoolwork. Generally, the smarter you are, the less time and effort you have to put into your homework to get by. Chemistry homework got done in study hall, Spanish homework was done in the five minutes it took for the teacher to begin class. Some may call this procrastinating, but I looked at it as more like a challenge. Obviously, it would be very easy for me to sit down at home after school, pull out my books, and finish all my homework the night before. I could spend time correcting it, and everything would turn out perfectly. Things would have been pretty boring though. One of the few adrenaline rushes I got (yeah, I never played any sports, save an ill-fated month in track) was from tearing through my lunch period trying to finish all my calculus problems in time for the next class. It’s the only way my homework was challenging.


Some people just don’t like a challenge though. That’s how I viewed lab reports with meticulously drawn charts, graphs in multiple colors (I did mine in the traditional Bic blue and black), and lab conclusions that were as neatly written as they were accurate. I could have done that, but it was too easy. Besides, I didn’t want my lab reports looking so neat and tidy. Mine may have been a little messy, but they had personality.


Christian Kleine clearly does his homework the night before. He might even work ahead. He probably even asks the teacher for help. That’s the problem with his first EP on Morr Music (the analog yawnfest label): it’s perfectly done, but it has no personality.


Kleine is pretty smart. His music runs the gentle, melodic tip (so he’ll inevitably be linked to Boards of Canada, like everyone else on Morr). Plenty of pretty analog keyboard melodies, textured backgrounds, and even a few samples of kids (so I guess that Boards of Canada comparison was pretty apt after all). He has a knack for nice melodies, and an obvious skill at mixing and producing. He even plays live instruments on the record. But the resulting music is just too comfortable. It sits around, looking pretty, and it’ll probably get an A. But the teacher isn’t going to remember it the next day.


The music is actually pretty good. “Boon,” the first track, has a nice shuffling drum beat (the live drums sound very refreshing, actually) and a good bass line. The atmospherics are quite pretty. But it doesn’t go anywhere. In fact, none of the songs really go anywhere. The components are nice, and they fit together well, but the songs are incredibly static. By the fifth (and penultimate) track, “Accent,” Kleine at least does the old build-up-take-down dynamic to the various parts in the song.


Basically, Kleine needs to push himself and try and take his music to the next level. “Several” has a melody line and a counter-melody that do a little interacting, but Kleine pulls away before anything interesting can happen. The songs feel like they are lacking something – a lead instrument of some sort. Some vocals could really carry the songs a lot further. He just has to push. Those neat little charts and graphs will only get you so far.