Atom™ – Riding The Void (Vinyl EP + DVD – Raster-Noton)
Genre/Influences: Technoid, minimal-electro.
Content: We don’t often get promo material from Atom™ (also known as Atom Heart) and that’s a pity as it concerns an artist we’ve fully supported during his early years and first steps dealing with electronic music. That was quite a long time ago when Uwe Schmidt was known as the master mind behind the Lassigue Bendthaus project.
Schmidt has released an impressive discography under multiple names and diverse projects, but Atom™ brought him to explore the paths of techno music. It’s a long odyssey revealing a never-ending inspiration and which has been now continued at this new EP released as a vinyl while the digital format features one extra track.
The “Album Version” confirms the long-time passion and addiction of Uwe Schmidt for high tech electronics based on minimalism and explicit sound manipulations. You immediately get in the grip of the deep, vibrating blasts and the kind of whipping kick. The track is expressed with darker tones while a few spoken like vocals inject a somewhat creepy touch to the work. This song is a remarkable composition, which explores some experimental technoid arrangements, but it first of all remains an intelligent electronic creation.
“Riding The Void” has been next featured in different remixed versions. The “Scuba’s Pulse Mix” is carried by a bouncing techno kick, which makes the song fully accessible for the clubs. Some elements of the original version have been fully respected while the extra danceable vibes makes it more exciting and techno-minded, which in a way is a bit the global mark for the other remixes as well.
The “Nought Remix” is a little bit more into groovy loops while the flat, deep sounding arrangements are coming through. The “Tool”-mix sounds a bit similar while the extra remix available on the digital format-only (cf. “Gesetz Der Oktaven’s Consumed Remix”) is my personal favorite. Hanno Leichtmann transformed the creation into an icy groovy version, which remains ultra danceable, but underground-minded as well.
Together with this release you also get a DVD including the visual works of “HD+”. It consists of 8 songs and clips, which are like a throwback to the “HD”-album released in 2013. The music reminds me a bit to a mix of minimal-electronics and even pure sound experimentalism, plus a kind of wink to Kraftwerk. The visual part of the work totally matches with the music. There’s a part of avant-garde and typical electronic visuals. The clips are absolutely great and threatened by the newest techniques of montage.
Among the song I especially like the kind of Suicide-inspired “Empty”, which reminds to this legendary band, but transposed into the sci-fi electronic universe of Atom™. The most surprising song probably is the cover version of “My Generation”, which was originally written by The Who.
The Other songs left move in between pure experimental and ambient inspired music to more explicit techno driven grooves. Atom™ often revealed himself as the imaginary hybrid between Kraftwerk, Biosphere and Autechre, but all in the end Uwe Schmidt doesn’t really need any further comparison because there’s only one Atom™!
Conclusion: Interesting material, which confirms the never-ending genius of this artist who’ll always and first of all remain a great sound architect.
Best songs: “Riding The Void”, “Riding The Void – Gesetz Der Oktaven’s Consumed Remix” + Empty.
Rate: (DP:8½)DP.
Band: www.atom-tm.com / www.facebook.com/AtomTM
Label: www.raster-noton.net / www.facebook.com/rasternoton
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
