Brutal Machines
Misc. is Christopher Bleckmann and Hannes Wenner - their new album Like Morning In Your Eyes is eleven tracks of lean, mean techno, with the fiercest saw-tooth synths I've heard in a while. I don't think I've really heard synth-bass like this outside of late 90s Drum 'n' Bass, it is that nasty.
Turns out there's a good reason for this, because not only do Misc. make nasty techno tracks, but the boys have worked in other areas too that lead them to this sound: recording jungle as Monophace on Germany's Precision and Krush Grooves labels; House and Downbeat as Van Delta on Groove Attack; and minimal Techno as Niederflur on Detroit's Minus. Thus, we arrive here. I definitely like a handful of tracks on the album, some of which are harder than others, but this one (I think it translates to something like "frequency beam") is especially solid - grumbles along with a buzzsaw synth bassline, plus its got fun little glitchy elements in the mix - with a great breakdown which I picture making a packed dancefloor freak out in the best of ways. There's also this track called "Kein Wort Zuviel" that has this funny bassline and melody that I swear I recognize from somewhere but just can't place... an 80s pop song maybe? I don't know. If anyone else knows what it is, let me know.*
Like Morning is released by Sender Records, one of the many smaller labels in the long, and still growing, list of Kompakt distributed labels - a feat which has allowed a lot of really great techno music to reach these shores that otherwise would go unnoticed. (I'm thinking, just as one example, of Ada and the Areal label - great output by those folks, that, thanks to Kompakt distro, ends up in most independant record shops.)
You can purchase your copy from the fine folks at Forced Exposure here in the US, or from Boomkat (UK) or Kompakt (EU) if you happen to be overseas. Also, if you happen to find yourself in Berlin, you can see Misc. live this Saturday night (Nov. 5th) at Berghain.
*Update: As I was out walking around, getting lunch and coffee, I was running melodies through my head, checking them against this song, and I think it might be the Hot Chip remix of Architecture In Helsinki's "Do The Whirlwind" - on listening to it, the song has a similar melody, and it sounds like the Chip might even be playing it on the same kind of synth.