Label info october 2006:
Still the amazing duo of drums and guitar, rant enters new territories of music and form without leaving the former spirit of their music forgotten. There is an auditory segue from „seumsund / sundseum” to „a direct sensuous pleasure” to connect the two. The first few seconds of the new album are exactly the same as the last few of the first – they took the tail audio and used it as the beginning of the first song “stelze”, a piece that wouldn’t have had any chance of legitimacy in the very chambermusic-like approach of the debut album – but shows elegantly the new direction the duo has taken.
„a direct sensuous pleasure” is consequently a very matured work of music which explores the more rhythmical and extroverted path of the duo. The new songs were not only developed and worked out in the studio, but as well, and more importantly, tested and fine tuned in live performance.
Once again rant shows what „popmusic” sounds like when there is no „popband” – just rant.
Quotes from international press:
A Direct Sensuous Pleasure impresses as a highly listenable and engaging collection of duets by Berliners Merle Bennett on drums and Torsten Papenheim on guitar. Having issued a debut (Seumsun/Sunseum) a couple of years ago, the two have developed a telepathic rapport that's clearly evident in the new material. The eleven short settings are more akin to episodic, through-composed pieces than meandering jams, though they're not so tightly framed they prevent a welcome looseness from entering into the equation. Papenheim opts for cleanly etched melodic lines and jazz-tinged fluidity while Bennett complements the guitarist with inventive fills and bell-like cymbal accents (even a horse's gallop in “Schley”). The pair groups the material into a trio of three-track sections separated by two brief interludes (“Tinkla Eins” and “Tinkla Zwei,” where Bennett trades drumsticks for glockenspiel and accordion, respectively) with styles ranging from the funky (“Stelze,” “Spule”) to the ruminative (“Rauhn,” “Weile”). A key part of the disc's appeal is the comfortable balance established by the two, with each musician intent on supporting rather than overpowering the other.
textura (Canada)
You know that you have talent when the musicians can turn even the bare bones of a song into a "sensuous pleasure." Rant does very simple sounding music. All that you hear is a drum and guitar. The songs are stripped down to the essentials: melody and beat. They are arranged in particular order to maximize the growth and metamorphasis of style in each song. There is so much here, done with such a small quantity of raw material. The songs have a jazz freedome and a rock appeal mixed with the just a bit of the heavy headed experimental testing. There is more here than the word "minimal" would imply. The material presents itself as complete and purposeful. The song titles are not in English, so my pitiful monolingual American education does not permit me to really tell you if the song titles are a concrete representation of what I hear. I can tell you that it is pleasant and soothing music, cathy yet intelligent, and just outside of the mainstream enough to listen without calling it a guilty pleasure. Heck, an argument can be made that this is a deconstruction of mainstream music. I like that thought.
neo-zine (USA)
Zwei Jahre hat es immerhin gedauert, bis auf das viel gelobte Debütalbum »seumsund/sundseum« nun eine neuerliche musikalische Offenbarung folgt. Das Warten hat sich gelohnt.
skug (Austria)
Der bezaubernde Charme der Reduktion.
freiStil (Austria)
