Raw and raging, Forgotten is a red throated roar. Teeth gritted, eyes clamped and fingernails in palms from the Berlin resident.
Charlton is the nom de plume of Belin based Charlton Ravenberg. Techno is his style, the straight up kind. For Mord music he’s served up three helpings of beat laden electronics, driving rhythms with just the barest touch of humanity. His latest, Forgotten, is from that same field of hammer and thud.
Percussion is at the epicenter, around which ghosting harmonies echo and whisper. A love affair or romantic outing this ain’t. Cold, hard and embittered is where Charlton is coming from. This is obvious even before needle drop. Titles like “Rough Times,” “Behave” and “Dirty Questions” are a precursor for what’s in store. Tracks are heavy, leaden and brimming with primitive menace. The title piece being a good example. Thumping bass is at the tracks core, pummeling and punishing rinsed static into submission. That relentless 4/4 whack is the driving force of the EP. Beats bully, leading the listener down the wrong path before the inevitable metal pipe in the face. “Elongation” is from this dark and depraved world. Dead eyed and without remorse the track is the type of being that will walk up to you calmly before smashing in your nose.
Ravenberg also releases as Tapirus, melodic techno with a nod to the stringy side of house. Charlton is an entirely different beast. Charlton is the angry, the unwanted, the marginalized. Raw and raging, Forgotten is a red throated roar. Teeth gritted, eyes clamped and fingernails in palms from the Berlin resident.
Forgotten is available on Mord.
