Published by Davide Pappalardo on October 30, 2016
Waldrick is the duo project of Thorsten Berger of industrial-noise project FabrikC fame and IDM aficionado Waldemar Müller, both hailing from Germany. A project born out a collaborative effort, where mechanical rhythmic movements are fused with IDM soundscapes and sonic experiments, always keeping an atmospheric quality to their input.
They started their venture in 2014 with the self-released debut Preemptive strike, followed by the double album Subtraction of light / Absence of light and the Steams and gases EP licensed by Raumklang Music in 2015. Now they return with Marshland, a work in which their research on sounds and atmospheres continues with the same passion and rigor always present in their music: steel-like beats, reverberations and key melodies are linked with sometimes loopy, sometimes abrasive and noisy soundscapes, while samples and loops are used as music instruments, giving a solid back bone to their futuristic vision of electronic music. The work is dedicated to Hannover and it tries to describe by music many aspects of the city and its history.
AWB wasteland starts with evocative and creepy ambient elements, picturing an imaginary movie made of sounds instead of images, generating a thrilling atmosphere. Then a steady rhythm knows a slow crescendo while many layers are added in progression: the result is a pulsating movement where IDM-esque and ambient sounds are one and the same, in a retro-futuristic mantra. The track is about the garbage dump of the same name, the first thing that someone coming from the north of the city would see.
Axercise [cutting flesh with axes] is a combative number where throbbing effects and synth lines are the ground for resolute rhythmic patterns; many tropes of club music are slowed and twisted, offering us a modern take on synth-based soundscores. Massive entrance moves on the noisier side of things, recalling powernoise distortion and dark ambient cosmic sounds, without forgetting the always present rhythmic loops which hypnotize us just like an atavistic war dance made by machines. The main theme of the first track is morbid, being about the infamous serial killer Fritz Haarman, man that between 1918 and 1924 has sexually assaulted and killed many boys and young men.
Tailgator is a sci-fi chip-tunes pastiche integrated with almost tribal rhythms and groovy patterns, an interesting experiment where some dancefloor keys are not forsaken, while Kings garden (a track about the Herrenhausen Gardens, a heritage of the king of Hannover) offers a technological reinterpretation of field recordings with martial undertones and liquid xylophone-like melodies, and even strings and orchestral sounds are used to conjure a plumbeous atmosphere.
The work is closed by the warping effects of Under the swamp, a track where, once again, minimal synth elements are reworked in an eerie and cosmic fashion, while IDM rhythms and melodies find their place in a slow building, which explodes in a grandiose retro keys triumph; sometimes we would think about 70’s and 80’s sci-fi movies and their soundtrack, but this is not simple vintage feticism, having instead a personal take on different sources linked to electronic ambient music.
A work with a strong personality, conjuring an inner world made by sounds and rhythms which tell many stories using different elements and tropes from both the more “mainstream” and underground currents of spacey electronic music. The duo never indulge in cacophony or hostile compositions, always keeping a flow aimed to ensure a coherent vision amidst the different experiments which compose the album: the resulting sound is fresh and captivating, attempting something new built on a solid knowledge of the tradition of the genres here touched. If you are looking for something different, have a listen, it really deserves it.
Label: Self released
Rating: 8, 5