Otto von Schirach
Pelican Moondance

"On the way back from a mini-tour, Otto Von Schirach crashes his car, severely breaking both legs. The situation is complex, and prestigious specialists are called in from every corner of the world. They take him apart and rebuild him completely: they install titanium, screws, cables, and microchips. He will wake up not knowing his own name, sitting in a white room, in a wheelchair and unable to feed on anything: only painkillers and new music to create, the broken-leg-beats. A new Otto is born. More aware, more lucid, more robotic. He will be influenced by the prescription of painkillers that produce the side effect of muddy, fast music that sounds like a fart in a jet ski, generating chainsaw-bass and hip hop rhythms with shark-bite-like sounds".

This is how OVS presents the series "Chopped Zombie Fungus," now in its second chapter: needless to say, it is another incredible record, and although more technically indulgent than the previous one, it is certainly no less inspired, with ideas abounding everywhere, typical of the Miami genius. The reminiscences of "8000 B.C" are there, but now there is a greater 'cleanliness' and a lesser sense of (apparent) random composition, which contrary to what one might think - given the formidable alchemies of that formula - does not harm Otto's music at all, but rather enriches it with new creative outlets.

For example, the robo-tribal rhythm of "Pelican Moondance" is strong with crooked accordions, clogged flutes, electronic gargles, pseudo-blues harmonicas, the clatter of swords, and the now classic whirlpool of complex sound waves in an advanced state of decomposition, in a noisey ocean with an unmistakable touch that displays a linearity not typical of the character; the equally classic horror cabaret returns at the end, mixing death metal growls with a marching band-like martialism, a vocoderized vocal in electro style, and a South American song listened to from a tiny radio on the counter of the worst bar in Caracas, amidst liters of alcohol, clouds of smoke, and the fat asses of old broke whores.

With "4 Rooms 4 Walls", a less visionary but equally technical track, unusual and sick percussion strive to forge a sound akin to an army of robots dealing with major intestinal issues; we then witness a solid mix of Miami electro style and typically breakcore incendiary rhythms, aimed at demolishing the brain in every cell in what could be an improvisation between Squarepusher and Dynamix II; remarkable are the tonal breaks à la Richard Devine and the anti-human beat filled with neo-industrial rants and crazy rhythmic shards in Autechre style of "Draft 7.30" (but a year early). "Granny Foot Powder" is absolute abstraction: advanced digitalisms that are completely amorphous, aseptic mechanical dissonances, out-of-this-world glitch menstruations, and showers of electronic signals follow one another in a complex puzzle that is a manifesto of Von Schirach's art; the insertion of never-before-heard spastic sounds, non-structured structures, and reckless un-timed counter-tempos has become a trademark in this later work, and here it works brilliantly as well. "Vomitar" does a similar thing but on a more schematic plane.

His is a progressive for human waste, and in this sense, "Lumpy Crawlers" does not disappoint, presenting itself as varied, structured, and engaging, a track driven by a round beat accompanying a harsh backdrop of alien tones and liquid drones taking on the Fripp role, followed by undecipherable sounding strings(?), once again showing how creating new sounds out of nothing is routine for this advanced brain. Absolutely delirious instead is "Madam Queef Blizzard", with the off-key and implausibly treated singing of Gladys Sanchez, which ends up taking on the appearance of yet another glitch, followed by suffocating beats reminiscent of jams among delayed monkeys under a storm of dense blocks of totally crazed organic scrap sounds; it is also a clear hint at the indescribable level of demented madness that Otto will reach in more recent days. Furthermore, it is one of the most experimental and uncategorizable tracks ever recorded on a medium.

Moral of the story? Yet another 5/5 for this freaking Genius.