PHASE FATALE - Redeemer

If there's one slice of entertainment-oriented electronic music that, through its countless practitioners, has for some time now begun to show a more or less collective lack of inspiration, it's surely techno. After reinvigorating its own rooms at the start of the decade - drawing in sonic decorators and upholsterers from the most disparate niches, such as industrial (see, for instance, the now-defunct Sandwell District crew led by Regis and Silent Servant), or the venerable Modern Love label with its champions, who were anything but tied to the original hard-and-pure Mills-and-remote-techno-intelligentsia template - techno has failed to reconstitute itself a third time with a new generation of standard-bearers. It remains "trapped" in this second youth of its, which persists undaunted to this day but is now starting to show substantial signs of inexorable fatigue, often tied to a stubbornly unchanging rhythmic approach, incapable of enriching the same old beat with anything different or intriguing.

Still, beyond the names mentioned above, there are those who keep trying to resist the decline of a style that once defined an era, attempting to extricate themselves from a past that grows ever more cumbersome and at times impossible to "forget." American producer Hayden Payne, based in Berlin, is certainly among this small enlightened group, and he's hardly a newcomer: he's been a member for several years of the gothic-leaning post-punk outfit Dream Affair, and of Void Vision, a minimal-synth quartet with an unexpectedly pop appeal. But it's above all under the moniker Phase Fatale that he has pursued his own personal journey into the wildest territories of techno.

To be precise, the man has been trying to crack the code since 2014, releasing several EPs with an overwhelmingly dystopian sonic vocation. Indeed, his music is a repeated frontal assault carried out with the brazenness of someone who knows he can bite without showing too much of himself, perhaps hiding behind his rich arsenal of gear capable of generating synthetic corrosion, booming electro-rock entrails and industrial undertows able to bring down walls like they were tissue paper. It should also be said that, for this debut LP, the American producer has markedly amplified his voltaic rig, relying on a sonic blend dominated by alternating synthesizers and robotic vocals filtered through acid so caustic that calling it fluoroantimonic would be an understatement.

Viciousness, first and foremost. Viciousness and a love for early-Eighties minimal wave. It's in this blend of intentions that the secret of Phase Fatale's winning formula lies. And who better to produce it than that prankster Dominick Fernow, with his ever more prolific Hospital Productions. What tends to disorient and unsettle on "Redeemer" is the sought-after, overt redemption (as the title suggests) from its reference model. Payne lets his punk soul breathe through dizzying techno arrangements. Take, for example, the incandescent "Order Of Severity" with its abrasive riff, not to mention the relentless rhythmic propulsion that follows, ready to "cheerfully" send anyone with even a passing inclination for the dancefloor into orbit.

Obsession is also the common thread linking the various tracks. Obsession and dismay. Fear and torment. Perdition and the urge to flee, far from one's own dark forest. The American producer lines up an impressive series of booms and blasts, like those that introduce the unsettling synthetic bounce of "Beast". Then there's the ultra-minimal adrenaline rush of opener "Spoken Ashes", enough to make the best of Veronica Vasicka envious. There are the spasmodic EBM-rave runs of "Operate Within" and the alienating electro-shock of "Human Shield".

In short, there's really a lot going on in this "Redeemer". But above all, there's still life in Berlin's techno ranks. And that's the real news here, much to the dismay of the many gravediggers all too ready to pronounce its final fall into the limbo of expired "things".

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01/10/2017