T.Raumschmiere, Blitzkrieg Pop

With Blitzkrieg Pop, Berliner T.Raumschmiere (real name Marco Haas) delivers more high-energy abrasive dance music, positioning it as electronic punk rock. I can’t speak to his live show, which is reportedly quite kinetic, but on record that project is a pathetic failure. It’s been five years since Retconned, 15 since Pretty Hate Machine, 20 since Big Black, and nearly 30 since Suicide. Electronic punk rock has been done already, and far better than this. And why T.Raumschmiere named his album Blitzkrieg Pop, when it has nothing to do with the goddamn Ramones, I have no idea.

T.Raumschmiere’s music might fare better with its meme inverted, as the punk rock of electronica — a sort of anarchist Loki figure in the cold, dead halls of techno. Unfortunately for him, that role was already fulfilled by hip-hop before electronica even existed.

Blitzkrieg Pop is an excellent example of the prime limitation of electronic music — namely, its stupefying adherence to danceability and commercialism, which unfailingly creates music that is safe, homogenous, and instantly forgettable. Electronica can only succeed artistically when it repudiates these goals (Squarepusher, DJ Food). As long as it fails to do so, it’s hard for a critic to love or hate it, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. From an ideological standpoint, however, it’s all fucking trash.