Bleep

There is a good reason that the latest release from Hainbach (Stefan Paul Goetsch) is entitled Impulsgenerator - the four tracks here were made principally on an old piece of German test equipment of the same name. As such, it won’t surprise you to find out that this EP follows on in the finest German electronic music tradition, one that takes in Kraftwerk, Mouse On Mars and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

There is a grainy thump to these tunes which is particularly reminiscent of Kraftwerk - specifically the group’s 1975 LP Radio-Activity. Both Radio-Activity and Impulsgenerator manage to balance claustrophobic atmospherics, geiger-counter percussive loops and tense electro rhythms. The droning chords of ‘The Hopes’ and ‘True Protection’ could have been spliced in from Radio-Activity’s title-track. Indeed, the manner in which Hainbach builds on the Radio-Activity legacy here brings to mind Gerald Donald and James Stinson’s Elecktroids - another act who were very conscious in updating the sound of German techno giants for their particular time-period.

It’s not all Kraftwerk worship here, mind you. ‘Past Perfect Future’ comes off like a juddering, more paranoid version of the dub-techno sound pioneered by Basic Channel. ‘Entropy First’ is similarly scuzzy, the track’s dubby bleeps and insistent bass hits hinting at a Bunker Records influence.

Impulsgenerator finds Hainbach building a new sound out of old parts.