Around the World in the Eighties 

Klaus Sperber aka BoogieLab presents a nostalgic but nevertheless fresh album with „Enjoy“.

There’s no doubt about it: The Eighties are back (in music!) – wait, I have lost count of the number of times it has done so already. Well, it doesn’t matter. . The main thing is that it's fun. And the new BoogieLab vinyl album isn't just called "Enjoy", it's really a treat. From unpacking it to the last note. Promise!

Klaus Sperber has been on international stages as well as in his own and other studios a bassist, composer and producer for decades. But the initial spark for the release of the long overdue longplayer came from the meeting with Klaus Voormann, the "fifth Beatle" and designer of world-famous covers. The summery, stylish design, which Voormann and his son Maximilian have created based on a picture by Leif Trenkler, is reminiscent of Miami Modern, perhaps also of David Hockney. The heavy, pink vinyl, on which the ten tight tracks of the album groove along smoothly and melodiously, also offers a high fun factor. 

Above all, of course, the music is fun, and it is also available on a strictly limited vinyl edition. As the cover suggests, music-wise it is also about cool artificiality, but also about lifelike objectivity. The use of talkbox, vocoder and legendary analog synths – from Mini-Moog to Roland Juno to Korg Polysix – is pleasantly reminiscent of the first heyday of machine-generated pop music in the early 80s. Not a bad time for fans of grooving pop sounds.

Music-wise there was also a good measure of Harold Faltermeyer and Jan Hammer (in the "Miami Vice" phase) thrown in, there are even some reminiscences of spacey, opulent synth sounds from J.M. Jarre to Daft Punk. Klaus Sperber is also good at something quite different: The fact that he incidentally co-composed "Eisern Union", probably one of the best football anthems of all time, ias not so apparent on this record than the fact that he was on the road for decades as a successful live and session bassist between pop, funk and jazz, and you can hear that even when his traditional instrument stands still and cool in the studio corner.

Energetically powerful, driving grooves like on „Moment Of Your Life" (A) and "Studio Work" B2) are just as much a part of Sperber's strengths as the downtempo soundtrack vibes on "French Open" (B3), incidentally the only piece in which he recorded the bass "manually" and dreamlike. He has re-recorded all tracks of the album with familiar and sometimes quite famous companions in the last two years, only an earlier version of the track "So Much Music" (B 1) is known to BoogieLab fans from his album "Sound Central", released in 2014 on the Frankfurt label peacelounge recordings.

BoogieLab is accompanied on its candy-colored musical round trip by good old and younger friends such as the Heavytones saxophonist Thorsten Skringer, who should be known to people who enjoy a laugh from "TV Total". Minneapolis-born trumpet player Richard "Rich" Laughlin has played with Bennie Maupin, among others, and counts the witty Al Porcino Big Band among his playgrounds. Stephan Maass is also on board, who played as a percussionist live and in the studio with Kruder & Dorfmeister, among others, with sparks flying. And he does the same on this record, on two pieces of "Enjoy".

Currently it cannot be predicted  that BoogieLab mastermind Klaus Sperber and colleagues will bring this refreshingly nostalgic 10-track album live to the stage. Perhaps this circumstance makes "Enjoy" even more valuable, namely that it can really only be enjoyed on vinyl in a limited edition. By the way: Good to know that not only in recording, production and design, but also in the final sound optimization, nothing was left to chance. Christoph Stickel was an absolute expert at the mixer. He has done his magic of mastering, which is particularly crucial for vinyl releases, for major musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle, Keith Jarrett and John Scofield, but also for Parov Stelar, De-Phazz and many other great music producers. 

And now: "Enjoy"!