seven

Asche is the solo project of A. Schramm, a former member of the seminal experimental German group Ars Moriendi (which also featured, among others, P. Münch of Synapscape). Schramm has been hard at work for the past decade, not only with Asche, which has a discography dating back to 1993, but with side projects Tempegarden's, Morgenstern and Monokrom.

Distorted Disco is the project's second release in 2000, following a live disc on French label Nuit Et Brouillard. It opens with a calm, fluid, ambient introduction, "The Sound ov the Shell," which acts as a buffer between silence, sanity and the distorted web of beats that immediately follow. "Kiss the Whip" keeps a marching pace of sharp, grinding loops and snarling vocals backed by hard percussion and intermittent voice samples that crop up often throughout the disc. Unobtrusive porn samples, however cliché, cross fade into the next track, which marches on with mechanized rhythms, a relentless, pulsating, technoid beat and countless other layers that all meld into one sweat soaked conglomerate of percussion.

"Another Kind ov Being" is like an industrial strength alternate Reservoir Dogs soundtrack. A lengthy, recurring dialogue sample between Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth is manipulated and spread out over the track's seven minute length, replete with harsh metallic clangs, distorted beats and what sounds like nails being rhythmically scraped down a glass window pane. All of these noises, including a glitchy, computerized sounding loop, are perfectly intertwined with one another. One of Asche's greatest skills is taking all of these elements and molding them into one distinct whole, as if they were all meant to be together. Even the dialogue samples are worked into the base of the songs; they don't merely sit on top of the finished mix like an afterthought.

Even though the disc is called Distorted Disco, Asche still manage to mix things up and iron out the static into smooth beats and electronics, such as with "Zapped," which could almost masquerade as a standard dance track. It retains the overall sensibilities that fit it in with the rest of the disc, but seems to clean itself up with sharper, more straightforward programming. "Inside the Sarkophargus," on the other hand, is one of the more challenging tracks: an acrid, caustic noisescape which culminates in a shrill, piercing frequency.

Distorted Disco is a well rounded release that marks a strong return to the ant-hill for Asche. And given the number of side projects the prolific Mr. Schramm works with, you can count on hearing a great deal more noise from him yet.