The release sets the scene, a back story of mutation and machine music. The six tracks narrate a Frankenstein tale, with the picture disc and comic strip (also included) putting flesh on the bone. A collector’s piece of wax that gives just a little taste of ghoulish things to come.
There has been a fair bit of change for Robert Witschakowski (aka The Exaltics) since his 2013 album, Das Heise Experiment, on Abstract Forms. The LP saw the Jena artist delve deeper into the gnarled machinations of the TB303, linking those bitter growls with sharp percussion and shifting shapes. Since then Witschakowski has featured on a glut of labels and brought his raw sound to new audio audiences via vinyl and live shows (a treat I have yet to enjoy.) Partnerships have been forged alongside this growth, one of the most exciting being Project STS-31 with Gerald Donald (Dopplereffekt, Heinrich Mueller, Der Zyklus and the rest) of last year. Well it appears that neither that collaboration nor Das Heise Experiment were finished with a second volume, or prequel, featuring Donald’s Rudolf Klorzeiger alias, set to hit shops.
This second installment, or experiment if you will, is not an album, with three tracks on wax and a further three for download being the offering. For those of you audibly sighing, fear not as there are some serious treats in store and more of the same scheduled. First is the artwork, a subject I rarely cover but in this case I’ll make an exception. Taking the form of a 12” picture disc the EP’s artwork comes care of Mehdi Rouchiche, the Dutch designer responsible for Crème Organization’s aesthetic as well as many other labels, and reflects the sinister moods captured within.
Cold steel is driven through speakers from the outset. All track titles are given numbers, a code cut out for each journey into the calculated worlds of electricity, the machine and man. Sharpened snares pierce through a haunting gloom in the opening 0998.0989.12.” Staccato synth stabs through the piece, adding to the aggressive overtones of the picture disc. The beast, the monster born of the cold hand of man, snarls from the platter with “00027.050.9.” Rudolf Klorzeiger offers his electro expertise to solve the problems of this mechanical abomination. A quick succession of juddering basslines spike from the 12” to needle their way into the very core of “00045.00.2.6.” Yet, behind these clinical tones, lurks a string, a subtle and sweet tone ghosting behind those lancing instruments of research and rhythm.
The download pieces are different creatures with a touch of Crotaphytus’ Acanthosaura to them. If the picture disc is from the perspective of the men in the lab coats, those doing the testing and torturing, the digital release is an audio record from the unknown animal, the creation. “04-01093.002.5” is a jumbled assembly of field recordings, interference and muffled groans; an echo of existence. “05-00046.85.0.H” is less abstract. Resonating pulses give rise to shuffling clicks, the clicks building into a drum, the drum becoming stronger as the first stirrings of the physical are born. The last rumblings come with the reduced “06.0001200.4.0.” Notes orbit crackles of static, noise washes over lost transmissions as consciousness forms.
In reality, Das Heise Experiment 2 (The Prequel) is an introduction. The “Prequel” is the lead up to the main event, the release of the double 10” Das Heise Experiment 2. The release sets the scene, a back story of mutation and machine music. The six tracks narrate a Frankenstein tale, with the picture disc and comic strip (also included) putting flesh on the bone. A collector’s piece of wax that gives just a little taste of ghoulish things to come.
Das Heise Experiment 2 (The Prequel) is available on Solar One.
