Maelstrom & Louisahhh – May the Rage Burn a Path for Joy

The history of the French label RAAR, run by Louisahhh and Maelstrom and active since 2016, proves once again how our underground music scenario can be deep and wide.

Already in 1995, a The Prodigy DVD entitled “Electronic Punks” was published and, at the same time, pioneering and rebellious bands such as Atari Teenage Riot were active. Punk has been started to be considered an attitude more than mere music, and the figure of electronic punk (or techno punk) artists was born and evolved until now.

Nowadays, most of the artists reviewed here could be considered punks because of their attitude, regardless of the electronic music style performed. In the past, more than someone said that, in the future, electronic music would have been considered the new punk music.

Although RAAR label was launched in 2016, these two eclectic musicians started collaborating in 2013 and, ten years later, released their first full length, entitled Sustained Resistance, where they showed their wide and eclectic approach to dark electronic music, dominated by distortions and ranging from synthwave to IDM, techno, noise, spoken word, EBM-ished songs and much more.

In the meanwhile, on their label, Louisahhh and Maelstrom have released many interesting releases where they have shown the great variety of approaches also shown in their first proper album, and have also released music by IDM pioneers such as Somatic Responses, which sound and approach perfectly fits with that of the label.

Less than one year later, they have released a new full length entitled May the Rage Burn a Path for Joy, containing reworks of some of their old songs plus remixes done by Slave To Society, Mickey Vox and Cate Horti, and the result of some new collaborations, such as that of I’m a Whip, featuring Brodinski.

What could seem to someone only as a remix album is instead a proper new release, inspired in its concept by Soulwax’ Nite Versions, in which each song has been given a more danceable approach, as a consequence of the experience maturated during their live performances.

Here the sound ranges from techno to electro-clash. In the remix done for The Seed by Slave To Society we also find broken beats, while the remix done for Vixen done by Cate Horti has an EBM sound.

May the Rage Burn a Path for Joy is a release showing the constant evolution of the sound of a duo refusing any categorization and always opened to experimentation in the wide spectrum of electronic music and of vocal techniques, and that’s what lovers of this music would always like to hear.

Label: RAAR

Rating: 9