Roberto Auser :: Chaos Never Dies (Femur)

Chaos Never Dies is the embittered lovechild of EBM and techno, a harsh and unrelenting hybrid of both styles dipped in a pool of ill-will and resentment. The tracks on offer peer down shadow-filled allies and unwelcoming recesses, they are a soundtrack of discontent and discord.

For some reasons there are artists who, for one reason or another, are impossible to pin down. Roberto Auser is one of them. The dutchman has been releasing music for more than a decade now, appearing on labels as diverse as Bear Funk, Enfant Terrible and Viewlexx. His style knows no boundaries, exploring ambient, disco and gnarled techno in his ten year strong career. It is to the latter that Auser turns for his new mini-album on Femur.

Blackened melodies and dirt encrusted kicks introduce the title piece. It is immediately apparent that this six tracker isn’t going to be an outing of niceties. Raw, bordering on violent, croaking vocals drown and sink in a syrup of oil and pain in the EBM nasty of “Chaos Never Dies.” “Ahead 93” follows a similarly murky vein to its predecessor with beats and melodies doused in a haze of delay and static. An industrial spine runs through the EP, expressing itself in rusted rhythms and lancing synth stabs. This inspiration is plain to hear in “Science of Symbols,” a piece that calls on Auser’s taste not only for cold mechanics but also esoteric soundscapes. The flip opens with the caustic live version of “You,” an unsettling work of DIY synth coupled with rasping words. Darkness stalks the entire 12”, menace and machine hiss bubbling to leaden surface of “Traumspiel.” The savagery is tamed for the finale. The growls and howls of the beast are subdued, calmed and soothed by this beatless ambient close.

Chaos Never Dies is the embittered lovechild of EBM and techno, a harsh and unrelenting hybrid of both styles dipped in a pool of ill-will and resentment. The tracks on offer peer down shadow-filled allies and unwelcoming recesses, they are a soundtrack of discontent and discord.

Chaos Never Dies is available on Femur.