With releases on some of the premier labels of electronics, Solar One Music steadily growing and his own machine skills getting ever greater recognition, 2014 is proving to be the year of The Exaltics.
I’ve been lucky enough to have been covering the releases of Robert Witschakowski (aka The Exaltics) for some time now. He is an artist whose style has remained locked in the frosted claws of Electro, but within those talons the Jena artist has found room for a spectrum of estranged emotion and tapered feeling. The latest, Some Other Place Vol 2, follows The Exaltics’ cracking debut on Rotterdam’s Clone Records.
After the brief intro of “Slip In” comes the title piece. “Some Other Place” shakes with a piston juddering ferocity. Serrating snares saw and twist. But amidst these fiery factory overtones swim soulful chords of writhing optimism. It is this thread of haunting hope that runs through the EP, a thread that is pushed and bullied by the mechanical menace of “Waves of Fear.” Any thoughts of a better life are rinsed clean with the heavy handed industrial dirge of “The Way Out.” But once again, that element of softness is present. The cold clatter and pang of “Different Ways” melts. Lush notes are twinned with Arctic blasts for the close.
It’s hard to see how Robert Witschakowski’s year could get any better. With releases on some of the premier labels of electronics, Solar One Music steadily growing and his own machine skills getting ever greater recognition, 2014 is proving to be the year of The Exaltics.
Some Other Place Vol 2 is available on Clone.
