Frank Rothkamm — Alt
Surprisingly though this collects togeather tracks from over a period of twenty years none of this sounds overtly dated or retro in it’s feel- which is always a good sign with electronic music that can have the tendencies to date badly & quickly. Through on the downside I have to admit much of this collection is somewhat mixed as to how successful each track is on its own & utilmailty in the grade scheme of the album as a total musical statement. For example we open up with the track ‘AAA’ which offers up quite enjoyable barren & stripped dusk line collection of sci-fi synth throbs. Then we have next ‘GUI’(yes all of the tracks have a few seemingly radom capital letters as there titles) which is a rather bland & bright country guitar & electronics dwell, which sounds like an out take from the Morr label back catalogue with the beats stripped out. And sadly this kind of thing happens through-out much of the album; you’ll have one great track, then a mediocre one which neither furthers the atmosphere created by the pervious track or gives you anything rewardingly atmospheric or harmonic to get your teeth into.
All told ‘Alt’ is too much of a mixed bag to play in one sitting as there are too many uninspired, bland & clichéd track littered through-out the album, but when Rothkamm does get it right especially on the more darkly stripped tracks he really mangers to hit the atmospheric & edgy spot right on the head. Some more thought & better track layout could have made a much more consistent playing experience, but as it is you get a few great tracks among quite a lot of mediocre & clichéd electroinca.