Florian Hecker - 3 track 12"

OK. I've got one last review to do this week. It's a 12" by Florian Hecker. Top wax for your club DJ. If you played this at a party I reckon you'd get stabbed up by 95% of the crowd. The first track is what I'd term as amphibian techno. It's monged-out bullfrog belch madness that actually hits some semblance of a real groove towards the last third of the tune. There's a real experimental techno sensibility to the track that kinda reminds me of Herbert on mogadon or Matmos doing an awkward slow-burning experiment. Tune number two is more abstract with a plinking metronomic thing providing the sparse backbeat, whilst what sounds like stupidly warped, sloppy snippets of some kind of dialogue provide the "tune". As a piece of abstract electronica it works but it's also fucking irritating beyond belief. The "epic" on side two delves more into the realms of layered & manipulated frequency drones. It sounds very dystopian & interesting and not half as difficult on the ears as you'd imagine. The second half is quite spiritual in a sinister digital way, recalling mechanised singing bowls in an icy vortex full of glistening stalactites. Although there was one particular frequency early on designed especially for the random hound in the audience that made Dave go "ooooaaaarrggghhh" for a sec, I was not expecting to enjoy 2 out of 3 of these tracks so much! Nice one Flo!