- A sci-fi-themed full-length from one of electro's modern masters.
- Electro lifers aren't spotlight seekers. The unshowy attitude of the scene's cult labels and producers has, until recently, made it an anonymous niche of electronic music. But a handful have shown a knack for theatrics, cloaking the music (and sometimes themselves) in imagery and symbolism. Gerald Donald is a case in point. From the laboratory eroticism of Dopplereffekt to the evocative underwater mythology he and James Stinson created as Drexciya, his music has inhabited striking futurist worlds. As The Exaltics, Robert Witschakowski takes cues from Donald, not least with the chrome-plated mask he wears onstage. In 2016, Witschakowski and Donald collaborated on Project STS-31 - Spiralgalaxie, a compilation that brought together both artists' various aliases. The compatibility of these tracks was striking.
Witschakowski's latest LP comes with a comic book that embodies the brashness of The Exaltics' style. The illustrator Mehdi Rouchiche's work on Das Heise Experiment 2 is fantastic, a stark callback to pulp comics. That said, the narrative flows a little awkwardly, and it's not easy to tell how the story aligns with the music. That, perhaps, was intended to be left to the imagination, since there's plenty shown in the comic's B-movie scenario of dodgy scientists, alien specimens, shady military officials and an advanced guardian species known as, yes, The Exaltics.
If it all sounds a little tongue-in-cheek, the music is dead serious. Those familiar with The Exaltics' catalogue will recognise the sound, which ranges from nerve-shredding atmospheric pieces to pumping electro noir. The searing, high-frequency synth dread on the opening track, "0001100.3.0," signal that this is the same alien zone from which all Exaltics material comes.
Several tracks, though, show unusual deviations. "00022.000.8" surges forth on a frantic charge that finds the usual electro blueprint bolstered by embers of breakbeats that call to mind the nightmarish rave signals on Aphex Twin's ... I Care Because You Do. The carbonated synths on "00025.040.6" are a nice touch of sound design. The pads hanging over the strafing lasers on "00067.58.2.4" uplift as much as they disturb. "00033.001.4" and "00044.00.1.5 (In Zusammenarbeit Mit Rudolf Klorzeiger)"—the latter a collaboration with Donald—faithfully mine the Drexciyan tradition, but the execution is typically exceptional. You could say the same for the album as a whole. Its immaculate sound design and dazzling atmospheres show that Witschakowski is one of the modern masters of electro.
Tracklist01. 0001100.3.0
02. 00022.000.8
03. 00033.001.4
04. 00044.00.1.5 (In Zusammenarbeit Mit Rudolf Klorzeiger)
05. 00066.15.0.0
06. 0004500.7.0
07. 00025.040.6
08. 00067.58.2.4
09. 00022.53.0.2
10. 000458.00.9
11. 00.254.003.7
12. 00.154.33.68