- Are you headfuck? You just might be. Like any genre descriptor, it's a purposefully inexact term, containing a multitude of different sounds and influences. You have the clean and deep sounds of Donato Dozzy and Cio D'or, the raw work of Berghain denizens Shed and Marcel Fengler and then there's this, the industrial branch, a style exemplified by acts such as Ancient Methods and Adam X. Headfuck is more a state of mind—literally and figuratively—than a sound.
By virtue of its release on X's Sonic Groove label, you can know generally what to expect from Obtane's Waterstorm. It's a release that fits neatly in the third category, a hoary mess of dirty techno that earns its track titles ("Waterstorm," "This Town Is a Rotten Morgue"). Francesco Baudazzi, the producer behind the project, sinks you deeply into grooves that are so water-damaged that you can almost smell the stench coming off the vinyl. The title track ferociously shreds a drone with hi-hats and a glooping noise that likely gave Baudazzi the idea for its name.
"This Town Is a Rotten Morgue" is more overt in its beat, playing with different percussion sounds in the track's first half before adding on an echoing sonar ping and slicing synth riff. More than ten minutes, you'd think Baudazzi would have to weave some of the elements in and out to give the listener some breathing room. But "breathing room" and "morgue" don't mix, as you might expect: Baudazzi just keeps piling things on until you're suffocated in the most pleasant way you can imagine.
Tracklist A Waterstorm
B This Town Is a Rotten Morgue