Alixander III - Schlamm EP
Posted by
Matt Oliver at
21/11/2011 11:00:00
Crumpled textures are what Alphonse Lanza-Alixander Iii
is all about, and the remixes are on hand to rub down the protruding angles of
the Smutmachinist. 'Dichtschlamm' is a
nervous burble of techno, like a perfectly still stretch of water that suddenly
has its calm disrupted by flora and fauna bumping into one another above and
below the surface. Still funky mind you...around half-way there’s a Jaws style
intake of breath that leads into an acid call of duty darting through, putting sounds on a knife-edge sharpening with every stroke. The Hold Youth
remix goes venturing further downwards and eventually projects an assuring peace
and quiet peering out of dimness, Seuil & Le Loup dropping off a few BPMs
and only spoiling it by adding a pointless ‘Dirty South’ vocal coming into view
like a poisonous jellyfish.
Compared to III’s deep blue terrors, 'Belebtschlamm' is light-hearted; although set to quickstepping beats,
the burbles are now overlapping and frothing over from all angles until they
burst, pinball techno shaking the dancefloor up like a SodaStream serving shots
of stiff liquor. Sishi Rosch decides to put his remix on an 80s pedestal, quite
superficially in keeping with the theme of the era. The bassline has the track
thinking it wouldn’t mind being part of a heavier groove, but its dainty keyboard
fantasia knows where its heart lies.
'Schlick' is almost freestyle acid. Pitched
all over the place - not uncontrollably, but literally blowing hot and cold - and
fizzing in and out of ears until it becomes an irritant (all while in a
peculiar state of stasis, where there’s so much going on except that there isn’t
really), Alixander III has the essence in the palm of his hand and is now playing God
with it.