Raumschmiere

T. Raumschmiere (Marco Haas) is stoked about bringing raw rock energy and grit to techno’s often antiseptic beatscapes. His second album, Radio Blackout, departs from his debut’s stoic, minimal techno workouts like a kid who just got out of detention and pounded a liter of Jolt. The platform-heeled stomp of Gary Glitter’s “Rock & Roll, Pt. 2” figures in several of Blackout‘s tracks, but Haas throws a few change-ups, too. The glam-punk swagger of “I’m Not Deaf, I’m Ignoring You,” “The Game Is Not Over” (a collaboration with Miss Kittin) and “Monstertruckdriver” will garner the most attention from club DJs and radio programmers, but Blackout is most interesting when it deviates from this linear, dirty-bassed template. Check the title cut’s ‘shroom ambience and the grotesquely misshapen electro of “muSick Boy,” which recalls demonic geniuses Otto Von Schirach and Alec Empire.