Tech‘n'roll

Photo of Raumschmiere and Miss Kittin by Antti Hietaniemi

Fuck if I know what to make of Berliner T. Raumschmiere. When I first heard his last album (The Great Rock and Roll Swindle), I thought, "Now this is techno that I can get into. This is techno that wants to get dirty and fuck." But then I listened to it some more and I started to hear all this arty stuff. Weird clicks and scrapes, all reverbed and tucked away. So then I started to wonder, "Am I mistaken or is this really art rock?" I asked Raumschmiere and he said, "I’m your loudest nightmare. The tech’n’roll dude that kicks your electroclash-lifestyle-fashion ass with a massive gnarz bassline and some punk rock attitude. Yes." Ordinarily that would cause me to delete his address from my computer permanently and begin bashing him publicly at every opportunity for being a pretentious fuck. That’s what I’d do if he weren’t completely right (although his syntax is pretty bad). T. Raumschmiere (a.k.a. Marco Haas) does indeed rock the holy living fuck out of a fuzzy acid bass line, and he’s capitalized on the groove used by glam rocker Gary Glitter in his beer-guzzling favorite, "Rock and Roll." (Marco claims he doesn’t know of Gary, to which I heartily respond "Yeah, fucking right.") On his new album Radio Blackout, Raumschmiere’s turned the acid Glitter knob to 11, then snapped the knob off and swallowed it. "Rabaukendisco," "Radio Blackout," and "MuSick Boy" all make dirty nylon seem chic. It’s not the same song over and over again like so many techno records. There are some woozy tracks, some really glitchy cut-up things, and a collab with Miss Kittin (whom, if I’m not mistaken, Raumschmiere’s doing it with). Maybe diversity keeps Haas from being easily classified. He’s far from being needlessly angry like Alec Empire, and way too hard for the Kompact crew. He’s been known to give really insane live shows, but occasionally drops some soft minimalist tracks. He also runs his own great label, Shitkatapult, with releases ranging from digital fuckery to electro to minimal house. And his name is a translation of a short story by William S. Burroughs called "The Dream Cops." Shit, this guy is too truly arty to be a self-important wanker (and god loves him because of it). DONNA SUMMER
Radio Blackout is out now on Mute.