Well, this bangs extremely pleasingly, doesn’t it? Charlotte de Witte has been producing proper hard techno for a decade — I first came across her in 2020, and raved about that 12″ — but this is her first LP. It is proper hard techno, and it is really really good.
Most of the tracks here feature big, thumping kick drums, snappy snares on the three, and some skittering syncopation. There are nice bouncy acid bits. There are lots of vocal elements, from sci-fi narration to classical Hindustani to Gregorian (possibly) chant to the awesomely infectious rap from Comma Dee on midpoint stand-out The Heads That Know and an epic floaty bit from Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance (ravers of a certain age will recognize the voice from the sample of Future Sound Of London’s Papua New Guinea) on After The Fall. Both the first two tracks involve doppler-effect motorbike noises: that’s okay, it works here, it’s that sort of record.
I don’t know whether this says more about de Witte’s strengths or my predilections, but the two cuts where she takes her foot off the gas are the only real weak moments for me. Higher provides, I suppose, a respite after six consecutive absolute belters, and has a wistful, soulful type of vocal; Matière Noire is the obligatory ambient closing number, with spooky French spoken-word vocals over vaguely Twin Peaks-ish synths: both are fine, but just don’t quite do it for me.
But check out the penultimate track, the appropriately named Hymn: it has a quasi-religious and deeply communal feeling to it, like an ode to the clubbing experience, and I can imagine it absolutely going off at peak time.
Basically, this is an instant classic, and I can’t get enough of it.
I bought this from the artist’s bandcamp page.
dogrando writes about some records 