‘Dirty funk’ – ‘shuffle techno’ – ‘noisy trash disco’? What are we critics like, eh? When we’re not clutching at straws or lurching off at an impossible tangent, we’re squeezing some outrageously square peg into a round hole of some dimension or other. Music fans are not much better. The only people who don’t seem to give a toss about genre fixing are the artists themselves, and T.Raumschmiere perhaps less than most.
The latest in a long line of agent provocateurs to sign to novamute, the Berlin based Marco Haas, a.k.a. T.Raumschmiere releases his new album, “Radio Blackout“, on 22nd September 2003. And what an unexpected treat it is.
Renowned more for his punkish live performances, T.Raumschmiere has been releasing music through his own label, Shitkatapult as well as a handful of others since 1997. Cited, I think erroneously as a one-man ‘electro-punk’ movement, T.Raumschmiere peddles some absurdly addictive electronica. Whatever else you try and hang upon it – is entirely up to you.
From the castrated punk orchestra of ‘I’m Not Deaf, I’m Ignoring You’ to the glam excesses and the buzzing monster riffs of ‘Monstertruckdriver’ (accompanied by an equally fine line-drawn video) ‘Radio Blackout’ oscillates between pulsating, hammer beats and the melancholy, minimal and industrial.
Atmospheric tracks like the ‘Drown In The Sea While Watching The Stars’ clank and fizz with volatile energy, whilst other ambient passages, like those of title track ‘Radio Blackout’ tender the gentlest of android dreams.
There’ll be those who’ll think that listening this album is a little like grasping at shapes amongst a shower of white noise – and they’d be right. ‘Radio Blackout’ cuts to the shape of just about any kind of pattern you have in mind. You like electro? You got electro? You like punk? You got punk. But for those prepared to look a little closer, ‘Radio Blackout’ is also so much more.
For those people looking for a snarling alternative to the tidy twiddling of Pole’s latest album, check out this little monster, it’s a beaut’.