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CD Feature/ Vasok: "Vasok"

  Tobias

I sometimes wonder what’s wrong with sticking to your guns. As long as music is an expression of your full self, there is no need to be eclectic. In the press release, Vasok is announced as an artist with an interest in anything from Electronica to Hip Hop and from Russian protestsongs to Norwegian Black metal. That may be so. But you can certainly not hear it on his concise debut Album.

In fact, this is one of the purest examples of minimal techno I’ve heard in a while. Of course, the genre as such hasn’t exactly been clean for years, soaking up external influences like a sponge. Microtonal sound art, especially, has rubbed off on all of its protagonists, enriching textures with a delicate depth and irresistibly erotic pollution. So if “Break-Off” takes demonically dry drum n bass bass stabs on board, “Murstein” rattles and rolls like an industrial factory on acid and closing track “Madlayer”  represents more of a soundscape than a dance track, then that is simply part of the game.

Vice versa, the stomping, romping and pumping anti-funk of the doubly beating bass drums on “UTURN” are exactly the kind of stuff techno dreams are made of. Vasok concentrates on nothing but rhythm, on the linearity of his cold hihat brushes and the disturbing off-beat horns thrown in at the end of each bar. “Rockoton”, meanwhile, is a crossbreed between I-couldn’t-care-less electropunk and a party at the firebrigade.

The popular inclusion of dub elements is nowhere to be found here. That need not be a bad thing, as it awards these tracks a kind of grim determination and focus. The same goes for the upfrontness of the music, which is satisfied with channeling its full energy into the groove.

To me, the distinct feature about the record is not its supposedly eclectic quality, but its relaxed attitude. Nothing is all that serious here and the general creed seems to be that music should be a playful thing. With pieces always finding their way out after barely three minutes, the album retains a conciseness often absent in many contemporary productions, which seemingly want to drag out a single idea for ages. I am definitely curious about whatever adventures he is going to take in the realms of Black Metal and Russian Protestsongs, but for the moment, sticking to his guns is not the worst option for Vasok.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Vasok
Homepage: Zang Records