seven

I knew asche was up to something different after hearing its track on "maschinenfest2000" comp. it did raise my eyebrows, especially comparing it with raw ambient sound of "recycling art." I am sure that if your heard the latter, the new asche would be a surprise for you as well (although the album title should have warned you somewhat; yet another radical difference from conceptual "recycling art").

it would be interesting to speculate about the trend that have surfaced this year. I do not want to accuse anyone with jumping on the bandwagon, especially if these attempts were successful, but I cannot resist the temptation to poke at the band or two. it has been slowly brooding over the years, starting with rhythmic sound of sonar, dive and hypnoskull, later adding some of the abrasiveness from imminent and maybe even synapscape. finally, this year it seemed to catch up with the rest of us, and we have been treated to a full offspring of quite impressive (yet very… "trendy" in a good sort of way) acts. in the shortest period of time we got s.i.n.a., mono no aware, tunnel, more straightforward and rhythmic release from converter, cleaner and more percussion-oriented synapscape, and the list goes on (not to count all the demos and new bands moving in this direction).

now for the tracks themselves - they fascinate from raw crunchiness of "kiss the whip" that with its very fitting distorted vocals and broken powerful rhythms reminded me of latest synapscape. following "riding on the atomic i.c.e." continues the trend with even more distortion and heavy loops in best latest converter fashion, spiced with quite a few nicely distorted frequencies. opening this track is almost squaremeter-like digital humming and miniature clicks, similar to very smooth dark ambience of opening "the sound ov the shell." "another kind of being" displays another kind of fasination with pure rhythms, this time more similar to celluloid mata's work on "invasion of" with the raw elements similar to sonar's "overdose…" rough techno with distant torn frequencies of "zapped" immediately reminded me of richer version of pierrepoint's "technoid beats for a paradox movement." "t.v.-wasted" presents a nice break with a very clean flowing ambient piece with beautiful strings and overall soothing and pleasant atmosphere, something as unexpected as a pure power electronics assault of "inside the sarkophargus" where heavy frequencies move through crashing thunder strikes, cold mechanized noises. this track is saturated with uneasy, abrasive ambience.

a few tracks towards the end are not as impressive, moving along the same rhythmic repetitious percussion lines, although a few ren & stimpy (?) samples on the last track will deliver a needed comic relief.

surprisingly, I liked every single genre that asche tried on this cd. and there are several reasons for that. first of all, (and this is where "recycling art" theme resurfaces itself) it is a great interpretation of "best of" in this genre - from minimalism and digital perfection, to harshness and abrasiveness, from ambience to fierce rhythmic attacks - it has it all, and most of it is recognizable, yet put together almost in a best way possible. second, this album is plain fun - it is not overly dominating, it is rich, diverse and is both a sonic candy and a work that has more to offer once you look deeper.

I am not sure whether it's just me, and I still cannot get enough of crunchy rhythmic sound, since almost every release that comes out sounds so damn good, or maybe the bands are truly doing a great job. I guess the only thing I can do is wait and see if I still would be that impressed with these albums in a year or two.