Grosskopf, Harald
Strom (black)
The evocation of electricity, the virtuosity of the circuit that skillfully intertwines man and machine, an antidote to the triumphal march of desolate musical digitality. If you listen carefully, you will immediately recognize the engineer behind the soundscapes. Right from the opener "Bureau 39", everything you would expect from Grosskopf is immediately there: the push toward hypnosis, a subdued pulse, catchy, circling bass lines, layering Moog kaleidoscopes. Sometimes the sounds coarsen, the depths distort into grinding noises (as in "Blow"), into mechanical gurgling, i.e. into what remains when the path comes to an end, when the music reaches beyond the human. The mid-tempo track with the programmatic title "After the Future", grotesquely twisting the word Onever", points the way there. Time and again, however, the beat pauses, leaving space for the soundscapes - and then, at the latest, the electronica of the early 80s springs back to life. The two complementary pieces "Gleich Strom" and "Spaeter Strom" would also t in wonderfully on Synthesist. On the other hand, the closing track "Stromklang" remains resolutely committed to the sinister, even gloomy groove that was previously unknown from this artist and with which he has nally returned to me after far too long. Stylo Kraut indeed.