What would Richard Devine’s tricked out twin sound like? Maybe a little like Otto Von Schirach. Where Devine is cold, precise and focused, Schirach is bright, effervescent, and, I suspect, a touch giggly.
8000 B.C. is Schirach’s full length Schematic debut. We’ve seen him before on a few comps and remixes, but here, he gets a chance to stretch his legs and show us what he’s made of. What exactly that is, I’m not sure. What I’m positive of though is that there’s a hell of a lot more spice than sugar.
Schirach’s beats are twisted, knurled and DSP’d like his Schematic brethren, but the almost total absence of melody is where they part. His music isn’t cold, and sterile, rather it’s more playful than imposing. But the utter lack of any melody is what makes this record so hard to listen to. There’s nothing to hold on to. His beats have giant holes in them; they
stutter and stammer so much that they have a difficult time building up any momentum. What they lack in consistency they make up for in complexity. It’s hard to keep track of the sheer number of ideas in each track.
8000 B.C. is a promising start. It’ll be interesting to see where Schirach goes if he does tighten his sound up, and gets a better handle his copious creativity.
8000 B.C. is available on Schematic Music Company.
Review by Nirav Soni
