Anthony Rother - My Name Is Beuys Von Telekraft - 2xCD

Welcome to my world! Even in the fifth year after the founding of Datapunk, Anthony Rother is still always a guarantee for surprises. Especially when on the new Telekraft label a previously unknown scientist from an orbit close to the Earth provides the debut release; a scientist whose name permits strange associations between mechatronics and the art world, and who also almost uncannily seems to be the spitting image of Anthony Rother, if one is to believe the cover artwork … ;-)))

Joking apart, with his current album, after his acclaimed long players "Popkiller (Datapunk)" and "Super Space Model (Datapunk)", Anthony Rother is concentrating fully upon the digital nature of the sounds, not just in the programmatic statement of "My Name Is Telekraft". "Especially during the past few years, the aesthetic perception of music has been restricted to an extremely reduced and compromised code, between MP3s, mobile ring tones and modern telecommunication. Beuys von Telekraft adopts this development as his own. It was my aim to use the poor quality of compressed sounds, reduced frequency ranges, lowered sampling rates and strictly digital sounds as a self-sufficient stylistic device, and despite this to produce fat-sounding club music that sounds anything but lo-fi." (Rother, 2008)

"In the past I had already used digital sound production in my music on an equal basis with analogue instruments. But at the moment I am restricting myself almost dogmatically to digital sounds, and would like nevertheless to create the maximum in energetic sounds out of this self-chosen reduction."

The fact that the British DJ legend Dave Clarke has already put the opening track of My Name Is Beuys von Telekraft at number one in his current chart shows more than anything else what kind of sonic impact is emanating from Rother's new masterpiece. In terms of content, the lyrics of "My Name Is Telekraft", "Welcome To My Laboratory" and "Girl Construction" - which are delivered in English as well as German - stand in the tradition of the man machine discourse that was already fascinating Rother on his Psi49net albums "Simulationszeitalter", "Little Computer People" and "Hacker" at the beginning of the millennium. New, however, with this reference to the golden age of science fiction, is a certain penchant for humorous overstatement. "After all, I did not want to express any social criticism with My Name Is Beuys von Telekraft." This applies even more to "Liquid System", the modulated synth hookline of which stretches over 16 whole bars, remaining constantly in motion in its unpredictability, and which will thus burn itself inescapably into the collective memory of the dancefloor.

And as if that was not enough, Rother comes up with another top-class musical experiment with the ten tracks of the bonus CD "Geomatrix", "a kind of dark film episode of the sound experiments of Beuys von Telekraft". Completely without beats and yet keeping the aesthetic of energetic noises that is so typical of Rother, he designs a future-orientated form of modern ambient without any cuddly lounge aspects. Focussed and radical at the same time, "Geomatrix" creates a deeply impressive atmospheric vision of the darker side of the urban experience. As "64 Bit Audio" puts it so nicely, "The system translates reality into frequencies."
Welcome to my world! With his current album on the newly founded label Telekraft Recordings Anthony Rother delivers an enthusiastic declaration of the digital nature of electronic music. "It was my aim to use the poor quality of compressed sounds, reduced frequency ranges, low sampling rates and strictly digital sounds as a self-sufficient stylistic device, and yet to make club music that sounds anything but lo-fi.“ (Rother, 2008)

Parallel to the release of the album "My Name is Beuys von Telekraft“, appearing exclusively on CD, Anthony Rother is of course also thinking of all the vinyl lovers. The fact that the British DJ legend Dave Clarke has now already put the album opener "My Name Is Telekraft“ at number one of his current charts shows more than anything else the kind of sonic impact that this work is sending out. The vocals, which alternate between German and English, make Beuys von Telekraft into a more than likable sci-fi star, and it does not require much imagination to turn the story of the scientist in a low Earth orbit into a vivid film in your head. Distinctly more gradual and stripped down in its formulation, "Digital Vision“ is Rother's highly personal idiom of techno between programmer's code, Chicago and Rhine Main.