On his last album — the grande two-CD set Welcome Tourist — Austrian electro boffin B.Fleischmann took his love for shoegazer/ dream-pop/ noise-guitar gear far further than he'd shown on his various Morr missives (including, even, on the label's extended Slowdive tribute Blue Skied an' Clear), draping his busy soft-electro programming in massive washes of strung-out guitar-sound, droning keytone, and, even, some murmured vocals. Where that double-disc action found Fleischmann using and abusing many more instruments than he'd felt up prior, with his latest outing he razes the instrumental-rundown right back, using a single piece of equipment in collaboration with Herbert Weixelbaum, a classically-trained guitarist and pianist who also dabbles in discs in which all he plays is a Gameboy. The only implement each music-maker in the Duo 505 do uses is, obviously, the MC 505; and, if you were ever going to limit yourself to a single machine, this might be the one to choose. Armed with the groovebox's range of keyboard sounds and its various modes of other-drum-machine mimickry, Late finds Fleischmann and his partner-in-505-crime returning to the Pop Loops that marked B.'s early Morr morns. Meaning, tweelectro fans, it's time to rise and shine! With washes of fizzy static, sparkles of ersatz keyboard chords, and beats so crunchy they're ringing in your ears, this Duo 505 album is all snap, crackle, and elecktro-pop, splashing in some of the most lurid unnatural-color-additives witnessed since Schlammpeitziger served up his last lolly of a longplayer. The cut "Wenig" so goddamn'd sugary that you're sure your parents would've never bought it for you for breakfast back when you were a kid.
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