seven

as usual, after 400 days since his last album ("ignarrogance"), the new noisex is out. this time around, there are a lot of new things that you will notice right away. first of all, the disk is released on flatline (while the boxset that includes the disk, if you got the boxset, was released on ant-zen); the lineup has changed as well, after 9.5 years as solo project, raoul decided to team up with phil philer; the "stage name" is not raoul r. anymore, it has changed to raoul rotation.

and the biggest change is the music - it is not simple and quite monotonous noisex of "over and out" or even "ignarrogance". the duo managed to create the sound that is really suitable for the dancefloor, quite user-friendly, melodic, features nice drum programming and synthworks at times(!). as usual, the music is almost devoid of vocals and vocal samples. noisy and distorted beats are (of course) present, but they are mixed in really nicely and do not dominate the music, rather adding a nice harsh edge to the music.

i wonder if it was extensive dj'ing of raoul himself or introduction of the new band member that resulted in more melodic and "conventional" music that is a lot less noisy and disjointed as previous noisex releases; or maybe phil philter is an excuse to dive into the new sound and start experimenting with more acceptable sound.

"1920.00" does not have bad tracks at all, the album creates very solid and rather complex atmosphere. my favorite tracks are both (radio and dist) versions of "rotation" - a great introduction to the "new sound" - very melodic, danceable, clean; great drum programming, slightly distorted sound. "die macht der nacht" - simply amazing mix of somewhat dislocated complex percussion that pulsates and flows, rolling and breaking over your head, constantly advancing and the strings that create a dark dense atmosphere. "lust.skull" is another amazing dancy track that has a very-very :w: feeling to it with strings and percussion resembling early work of that band; "under pressure" features quite minimalistic trademark "noisex" sound that mutates to crushing rhythm'n'noise track with minimal breakbeats driving the sound to extremes.

for years i thought that despite its cult status, noisex never managed to create rhythm'n'noise that was interesting enough to capture my attention for long. "1920.00" is the (breakthrough?) release that repeats the success of tracks like "4-025905-907021" and "maschinwörk" and takes the noisex sound to the future with more complexity, intensity and intelligence.