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5.0 out of 5 stars
ten million watts they keep me busy alright, January 19, 2007
Regardless of whether his music is your cup of tea, you have to respect Marco Haas's chameleonlike abilities. Under the moniker T. Raumschmiere, he has created a morphing persona that exhibits Kid Rock's swagger, Andrew W. K.'s rock star exuberance and Al Jourgensen's anger -- not to mention the anxious but delicate programming chops of the best IDM artists in his native Berlin.
For this single, Haas pushes all of these characters into the red, allowing all of them to (literally) scream at once: the "Album Version" launches into controlled chaos, driven by pummeling rock 'n' roll drum-machine drums and a complex, ripping bass line. Haas fills all performance and production duties, as well as rolling out his newest forté, his thrashing croon. As the track grows increasingly dense and overbearing, he comes in with a timely chorus: "I got my sh** on and I'm ready tonight / ten million watts they keep me busy alright." Without warning, the ensemble shifts to a breakdown of glitching, time-stretched vocal edits, attacked with exploding snare/guitar combos. Haas blasts another chorus or two, then bails just before the three-and-a-half-minute mark, guaranteeing that you'll be back again and again to absorb all of the details in this voluminous track.
Mr. Nô's remix transplants Haas's aggression from the booth to the dance-floor, but loses none of the original's energy, amplitude or craft. Haas's voice is still in full effect, lofted over a**-shaking bass drum thumps and sucking vacuum pulses that serve as hi-hats. Nő adds his own touches, drawing from a palette of digitized engine-revving sounds. These routinely dominate the track, boosted into gritty drone range, but fall back just as they're about to outstay their welcome. The Bryan Black remix doesn't achieve the same level of brilliance, but that might be because (a) you've just heard one of the greatest remixes in the history of remixes, and (b) Black's work sounds suspiciously similar (i.e.: similar synth stabs, similar harmonies, similar bass lines, et cetera) to Nitzer Ebb's "Hearts and Minds", as if Black is trying to recycle that classic, or simply take a shortcut for a new generation of listeners. That said, it's still characterized by deft programming and head-nodding rhythms -- and it's the disc's last track, so it's easy to skip if you're not into it.
"All Systems Go (Extended)" rounds out the set, showing off Haas's softer side, but it isn't a token B-side for collectors. Haas harnesses all manner of colors and textures, creating melodies from feedback and almost-painful noise, and slaves them to a gently swinging rhythm.
Since his debut a few years ago, Haas has obviously been hard at work furthering his "yeah, it's a laptop, but I'm gonna f***ing entertain your a**" aesthetic; pictures of him standing on and mangling a mixer don't do his work justice. He still shows no sign of proclaiming allegiance to a specific genre, he continues to push ahead into new musical territory, and he persists in responding to each new challenge with style and aplomb.
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is one of T.Raumschmiere's 
