Apparat, aka Berlin's Sascha Ring, has had one hell of a year. His collaboration with Ellen Allien, the critically acclaimed album Orchesta of Bubbles, forged electrifying new connections between techno, electro and pop music. They developed the material into an electrifying live show that wowed clubs and festival audiences the world over. Apparat kept honing his solo show at the same time, delivering a powerful electro/techno laptop attack that would leave crowds twitching in its wake. And somewhere, in between all those activities, he managed to record Walls, his first solo studio album since 2003's Duplex. 
Despite its title, Walls isn't about dividing lines. Instead, it describes a circle that pulls many elements together into a protected, enclosed space where they jostle and roam free: strings and mallet instruments; rock guitar and gravelly sawtooth synths; stuttering digital percussion and muscular studio drumming. 

"This record isn't really a focused and conceptual production," says Apparat. "It's more of a 'last-two-years of Apparat compilation.' That's why there's so much different stuff on it, a lot of different influences. What can I do—when I worked with Ellen we had a certain amount of time and a plan of what we wanted to do

1 Not a Number
2 Hailing from the Edge
3 Useless Information
4 Limelight
5 Holdon
6 Fractales Part. I
7 Fractales Part. II
8 Birds
9 Arcadia
10 You Don't Know Me
11 Head Up
12 Over and Over
13 Like Porcelain