Raudive - Ruins

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  • Oliver Ho's last two releases as Raudive have moved away from techo's timbres towards something more lifelike: the bristly feel of rock music. His latest, for Macro, continues pulling on this thread. On Ruins he chooses buffed metal over muscle, in turn channeling a No Wave aesthetic. The difference here is that Ho would never do lo-fi. "Ruins" is present and lucid. The vocal yelps have all the atonal qualities and the '50s slapback echo of early '80s electronic punk. Everything is laid out carefully with antiseptic clarity that feels all Ho's own. A little more lighthearted, "Visitor" kicks around some sort of steel drum like a hacky-sack. Campy sci-fi lasers and a bleating horn sample make up the melodic elements. Both tracks are built on exaggerated drum kits that feel as if they're made out of rubber, bouncing all over the place. But don't confuse that with whimsy, because these two tracks hit as hard as anything in Ho's extensive back catalogue of chugging techno.
  • Tracklist
      A Ruins B Visitor
RA