Anyone remember gabber? It was a moment in the mid-Nineties when Dutch and New York dance music went as fast and loud as it could. In retrospect it was a bizarre anomaly but achieved brief cult popularity combining puerile juvenility, punk, avant-garde experimentalism and techno in a way that’s never been repeated. It was a bloody racket but the best of it had a real venomous sting and eventually appealed to the heavy rock community as much as ravers. The same can be said of Huoratron, AKA Finnish producer Aku Raski.
Raski was discovered by Last Gang Records, the label that homed fellow electronic iconoclasts Crystal Castles, DFA 1979 and others. At the time he was performing a wild live show at a metal festival. His music though, has more in common with French electro stars Justice than Metallica, albeit more distorted and unrelentingly cacophonic. With the exception of the devastatingly battering penultimate track, “Transcendence”, Huoratron doesn’t actually sound like gabber, but his music has the same wilful snarling noisiness. For those who like to explore the pitiless exhilaration made available by machines, this is a treat, a cleansing of the palate
Deep in the human DNA are response systems designs to react to alarming noises. Huorotron’s music, which is full of sirens, screaming synths, gargantuan basslines and hammering beats, wakes these up. “Sea of Meat” comes on like dubstep in Hell, “A699F” crams as many contradictory caustic noises into one track as it can, and the final “Unblinking Eyes” even resorts to a growling horror film demon voice. It’s all designed to thrill and does so because there’s enough stylistic variety to leaven the racket. As the world, and especially America, wakes up to gnarly, rock-friendly dance music such as Skrillex et al, Huortatron may find himself seriously in demand.
Watch the video for "Cryptocracy"
