Rene Hell - Porcelain Opera

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 27 May, 2010.

This is yet another alias of Jeff Wischer who I'm familiar with from records as Secret Abuse and Deep Jew. This is some good quality new-school synth gear which has a nod to the kosmiche stuff in terms of the very classic sounding synth motifs. Although Wischer takes things into a slightly dirtier zone. I particularly like the weirdo alien vocal flourishes and rugged analogue lo-fi production aesthetic. This would certainly do the business on a good old mushroom trip, leaving you thinking you're aboard some spacecraft from a distant galaxy and wondering if you got the dreaded anal probe. Comparisons to Emeralds and Oneohtrixpointnever are indeed valid and fans of either would certainly be advised to give this a whirl. Generally speaking this lacks the immediate impact of the aforementioned artists but repeated listens reveal unique elements and nuances in the production that makes this album stand alone. The LP comes with a CD of different material so grab one while you can.

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* Rene Hell is the latest and possibly greatest moniker of US noisenik Jeff Witscher. Over the last handful of years Witscher has made a name (and possibly a cult?) for himself under a plethora of different pseudonyms exploring various
disparate styles. He has been known as Impregnable, Secret Abuse, Marble Sky and as part of Roman Torment and Deep Jew among others, and now he’s settled on Rene Hel

* With this project we find him focused on synthesized kosmiche sounds – but unlike many of his contemporaries (Emeralds, Oneohtrix Point Never etc), instead of delving into nostalgia there is something decidedly modern about Witscher’s compositions. The bubbling, effervescent synthesizer sequences and percussive patterns seem to twist and turn over each other with a near-techno precision, and at times you might be forgiven for thinking that ‘Porcelain Opera’ had more in common with Basic Channel than Cluster.

* ‘Porcelain Opera’ is an album made by a consummate music obsessive, and Witscher is just as obsessive about his composition as he is his influences. The album’s tracks seep into each other like viscous lava, decomposing and reforming as the track markers fade and re-appear. This is pure electronic music - songs created with analogue circuits and half-baked patch cables, dusty cassette tapes and greased-up potentiometers. And despite his noise roots, there is something distinctly sparkling about this collection of tracks. ‘Prize Mischief Hold’ fizzes and cascades from the speakers like a box of illicit Chinese fireworks, and the album’s glorious centrepiece ‘L.Minx’ thunders through an electrical storm to reveal glorious, warming harmony.

* Electronic music has been much maligned in recent years and its contemporary rediscovery seems almost too rooted in kitsch to be taken seriously, but Jeff Witscher’s synthesizer gospels are more than just a flash in the pan. This is analogue exploration at its best, and once it digs its rusty talons into you, it refuses to let go.

* THE LIMITED VINYL EDITION OF THIS ALBUM COMES WITH A FULL-LENGTH BONUS CD ALBUM ‘ROGUE
CAMERA’ (TYPE078CD) - DEVELOPED AND DARK SYNTH AND DRONE EXPERIMENTS, LIKE A MORE
OBLITERATED ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER OR EMERLADS