T.Raumschmiere
Radio Blackout

Years ago, when Taunus reviewed “Radio Black” here on DeBaser, I immediately took that succulent advice and got myself a copy of Marco Haas’s album (that's his name). And I liked it right away. A lot, actually.

I thought to myself: what a great ignorant beat! What great ignorant sounds! How wonderfully ignorant everything is! And since I am ignorant inside, I consumed it thoroughly that summer. It was 2004. Today, Tuesday, July 11, 2006, on a sweltering afternoon in Mestre, indulging in some deep lounging on my bed with the blinds half-closed and a joint half-extinguished, I decide to randomly shuffle through the mp3s on my PC.

As fate would have it, this very CD starts playing through my headphones, almost melting from the heat. At first, it’s a trip. All bouncy and fun. But then I stop and have a revelation. Wait: I never really understood a damn thing about this album! This German doesn’t make a beautiful square beat with the right and stylish sounds, packaging it all with little bows here and there to embellish... He does the exact opposite. He really knows his stuff.
This guy, just with the beat, breaks everything apart; it's the ignorant base used as an embellishment, it is the little bow. He plays with it, the bastard. He's been fooling me until today. Sure, listening to “The Game Is Not Over” with the sultry Kittin as the vocalist is a nice joke, because the track hooks you straight from start to finish. Ignorant.

Just like “Monstertruckdriver” or “Querstromszraner” are ignorant. But then tracks like “Someday” or “Drown In The Sea While Watch...” and especially “Radio Black Out” never aroused my suspicion, maybe because I never listened to them back then. I always skipped them. Yet, that's where the wolf hides, that’s where the unexpected Marco emerges. They seem to be the weak links of the CD, but it's not so. In fact, all beautifully minimalist with mini-club sounds just in the right places and well-managed synths: a beautifully syncopated groove in the first, a burnt and acidic sound in the second, an alienating and dreamy atmosphere in the title track. But it was the enlightening “Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Strom” that opened up a whole new scenario for me.

This is where you realize that T. Raumschmiere is not only fun but also skilled. This is where you understand that the beat is just the cherry on top... Now that I’ve said what I needed to say, I’ll lie back and finish what I was doing.

Aloha