Four electronic grotesques in ten-inch format, pressed as short but concise 45 RPM tracks.
The feast starts with the title “Power Outage”, which feels like a demonic shrink session during blackout, with Alan Vega type of manic recital on accelerated knocking-on-wood beat of Amii Stewart. Next one, “Fabrics”, features EBM-friendly synth theme while things take an odd turn in “Lotraf”, where offbeat-infected drum machine is dissed by deformed monologue, allegedly by the man himself in his younger years. Crushed by noise, “Thurston Moog” finishes it off as symbiosis of electric blues and folk
After hanging out with NYC’s L.I.E.S. and its alleged offshoot Russian Torrent Versions, “Power Outage” marks Beau Wanzer’s return to the hometown Chicago and Nation, Traxx’s jakbeat label where Wanzer debuted in 2008. Obviously, black belt tracks are the result.
2014-08-11