Bleep

Uwe Schmidt comes to life as Atom TM on his long-awaited LP 'HD', his second release on the inimitable raster-noton. Working with computerised electronic arrangements and vocal snippets, this full-length, standing for 'Hard Disc' rather than hi def, acts like the follow up album to his excellent release in 1999 by LB aka Lassigue Bendthaus (one of Schmidt's numerous aliases) called 'Pop Artificielle'.

With tracks like 'I Love U' featuring vocals by Warp's Jamie Lidell, and the cover of The Who's 'My Generation', Schmidt dissects the bones of a conventional pop song, isolating the elements of guitar licks, drum rolls and vocal lines and reconstructs them into a modernist pop song. 'Stop (Imperialist Pop)' is classic Atom TM, with fragments from his 1998 track called "Hard Disc Rock (don't stop)", and 15 years on, he is referring to the imperialist pop of Sony, Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. This is an album that evokes his back catalogue as much as it looks towards the future, and shows how Schmidt continues to be one of electronic music’s true innovators.