Rotat - Static Antics.

Rotat – Static Antics – CD – Aussaat – Aussatt 33 – 2024

https://rotat.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte/

          1.     Night Porter.

          2.     Hoochie Whoracle.

          3.     Attic Burn.

          4.     Hanged To the Horn.

          5.     Lycanthro Drunk.

Rotat has produced over 20 recordings in the decade since the first self-titled release in 2014 on Deviants Clove Productions. Their Discogs page reads like a who is who of great noise labels. This one man working from derelict farm buildings in Finland, throwing out continually great recordings with little explanation, ego or publicity. Interviews reveal little about the real inner workings of Rotat. I have always thought of the project as Rural Harsh Noise that develops within itself away from the spotlight with each recording a documentation of the creator’s progression, interests and life. Despite being present on the internet, Rotat remains a mystery.

Night Porter is cascading, crunching, noise over a line of splattering, humming, single tone. The sound fattens up to become a distorted mass, yet it never exceeds the line, the line is present throughout. It is almost like a chaotic, frenzied message, writing itself out and like the project's mystery, we’ll never know what it is about. Night Porter demonstrates a controlled mastery of Harsh sounds. Sharper, piercing feedback spears through Hoochie Whoracle, this is cut into as distortion crashes around it until it obliterates its own core. This is cut up sound stands in contrast to the line sitting of the last track. Noises sound vocal behind the forefront noises that scream out. As the track fills up, it uses less bass than Night Porter, instead using echo to push the depth of the sound outwards. The tone of sound is adjusted slightly in the latter part of Hoochie to create echoing screams of feedback that bring the track to an end.

Death drones resonate to begin the Attic Burn, this hums until it breaks up into a sharper cacophony of separate noise elements that are thrown at each other until they find their own form. Strong levels of screaming noise are reached on here again, the drone sits underneath this. Hanged To the Horn treats us to a very sharp pointed blast of sound, it is as if the knife sharpens across each track, with the knife being a metaphor for the sound, the cut in this is severe. As it dies off and returns with thicker sound, with the bass giving a delicious depth to shift it effectively. Once the sound is settled the speed of the sound accelerates and weaves into one, it roars, distorts, yells and paints a bigger picture. Lycanthro Drunk is straight into action, it dives in, no build up, the work is immediate and intense. It combines all of the best elements of the previous tracks to create a beast of a track. As elements rapidly drop out and there is lone feedback wail and distortion crackling around it, the barrenness allows for one last build up of sound before it speeds into its’ end.

Overall Static Antics is top tier present day Harsh Noise and delivers the high standards of excellence that I have come to expect from Rotat.

Forest Fields Fury, Mapperley Man.