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RADIO BLACKOUT
(Novamute)
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Marcos Haas has released a spate of singles and one full-length compilation album under the moniker T. Raumschmiere, a stage name adapted from the William Burroughs story The Dreamcops. Radio Blackout is his first proper full-length studio recording, and it lands him somewhere between the high-minded æsthetes of IDM ("intelligent dance music") and the fashion-forward electroclash scene. The release shows off a carefully manufactured digital grit, and indeed most of the attention surrounding Haas focuses on extra-musical attributes like his hip fashion sense and his wild stage show, which occasionally finds the artist endangering his equipment in violent bursts of dancing. This extraneous attention creates a bit of a problem on Radio Blackout: without the visual spectacle of Haas thrashing about the stage, the bulk of the album is surprisingly staid. Many of the signifiers of "punk electronics" are in place — thumping beats, lots of attitude, and a cameo by electroclash vocalist Miss Kittin — but the songs conjure little in the way of intense emotion. Haas’s promise has more to do with the way he presents himself as T. Raumschmiere than with anything musical.
