T.Raumschmiere: Sick Like Me
Novamute

Offering a foretaste of T.Raumschmiere's imminent Blitzkrieg Pop full-length (featuring Ellen Allien, Quasimodo Jones, and Gauno Apes' Sandra Nasic), the four-song maxi-single Sick Like Me includes the album version of the title track (also Marco Haas's first recorded vocal performance) plus two Motor remixes. Unfortunately, the stadium-ready rock'n'roll of the song's album treatment may be hellish, hardcore, and high-energy but it's also banal; that Haas can so convincingly re-create the sound of a faceless punk-metal band is hardly cause for celebration. With the song stripped of its heavy-metal raunch, his strangulated vocalizing moves even more to the forefront on the two Motor remixes, and that's also a shame, given the swinging electro-funk punch that Motor members Mr. Nô and Bryan Black bring to their respective 'London and 'Tokyo' versions. Though it references the electro-shuffle style of 2003's Radio Blackout, the blazing burner “All Systems Go! (Extended)” goes down much more palatably, due in no small part to its instrumental status. Needless to say, Haas might want to consider surrendering the vocal reins to those with greater gifts in that area (a mission accomplished, to some degree, on Blitzkrieg Pop).

August 2005