Over the last five years, Berlin-based dark IDM / electro duo Atmogat (aka Toni Polkowski and Danny Prusseit) have released a steady output of download-only EPs for a number of netlabels including Direktschall and Trachanik Records, and this latest release on the Greek Impulsive Art label ‘Trigger Event’s offers up the duo’s debut full-length album. As the dark-hued and digitally-sculpted sleeve art suggests, the eleven original tracks gathered here see Atmogat crafting brooding, almost pristinely sheeny downbeat IDM landscapes with very little in the way of real ‘sunlight’s entering proceedings. Indeed, the fusion of moody cinematic programming and DSP rhythmic manipulation here frequently calls to mind associations with a more dark-hearted Funkstorung, or perhaps even Lusine. Opening track ‘Battery’s Low’ certainly aptly encapsulates the aesthetic that’s at work here, fusing an unsettling backdrop of eerie minor-key synth drones and buzzing bass presence with snapping industrial-edged breakbeats and hissing snare, the resulting dark atmospherics calling to mind one of Haujobb / Architect’s more cinematically minded explorations.
Elsewhere, ‘Sleepless’ sees sinister dubby bass reverberations locking into place nicely beneath a rattling backdrop of contorted percussive rhythms and stabbing bass drum pulses in what’s easily one of this album’s standout highlights. While there’s certainly an immersive sense of dread atmosphere conjured here though, there’s frequently also a sense of repetition and meandering directionlessness. While the accelerated breakbeats and twinkling synth atmospheres of ‘Shani’ and ‘Indian Summer’s almost Afro-centred percussive thump signal the arrival of some intriguing fresh elements into the mix, it’s only right towards the end of the tracklisting that proceedings really start to rise out of the brooding morass here and come alive. While I have to confess that a lot of ‘Trigger Event’s didn’t really stand out for me amongst the sea of other similar dark / industrial IDM releases out there, with a couple of bonus remixes packed in at the end from Access To Arasaka and Nikka, fans of the likes of the Spectraliquid and Tympanik Audio labels should still find much to enjoy here.
Chris Downton
