Kontakte - Transmitter/Receiver
by Paul Raven
published: 8 / 11 / 2007

Label:
Enraptured Records
Format: 7"
intro
Powerful futuristic synth rock on new vinyl only single from British electronic duo Kontakte
You're out for a drive, speeding across a simulated urban landscape of glass and neon, the vast logos of consumer electronics brands flashing past the windows of your vehicle, which is itself, just like you, made entirely of digital signals, cascades of ones and zeros creating complexity out of the simplest possible statements there are ... OK, so that's a bit of a naïve cyberpunkish flight of fancy, but it's the first thing that flashed into my head as I listened to these two tracks by Kontakte. Based on layers of throbbing synthesizer bass and machine percussion, the upper surfaces are comprised of distant squalling guitars, almost psychedelic in tone, howling from over the horizon like lost wolves made from rusting metal. Much like the motorik music of Kraftwerk, who must surely be an influence, Kontakte's instrumental music brings to mind motion – not human motion, but the fast and dispassionate covering of distance that modern transport machinery makes possible. These songs are visions of the world seen at one remove, separated from your direct senses by the glass of the car window ... or your television, your computer screen. It's haunting, but impersonally so - a lurking sense of existential misery flits through the tunes, but it's curiously comforting, despite the gloomy samples from news broadcasts about the first atomic weapons. It's a celebration of the weed-forced cracks in the concrete of modernism, like the audio equivalent of a JG Ballard novel. Perhaps I've been living in the city too long ... but there's something about this that makes me want to hear more.
Track Listing:-
1 Transmitter/Receiver2 Sterile World
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/pages/kontakte/10237621989https://twitter.com/kontaktemusik
http://www.kontaktemusik.com/
Label Links:-
http://www.enraptured-records.com/https://www.youtube.com/user/enrapturedrecords
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Enraptured-Records/210309919017
digital downloads
soundcloud
reviews |
These Machines (2014) |
![]() |
Immediately appealing and upbeat post rock on third album from instrumental trio, Kontakte |
We Move Through Negative Spaces (2011) |
most viewed articles
current edition
Douglas MacIntyre - InterviewJann Klose - Sugar My
Sarah Cracknell - Interview
Jimmy Webb - (With support from Ashley Campbell and Thor Jenson), Cadogan Hall, London. 27/5/2022
Loop - Interview
Jarvis Cocker - Good Pop Bad Pop - An Exhibition of Objects and Keepsakes of Jarvis Cocker
Tom Newman - Interview
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Simply Red - La Marina, Valencia, Spain, 7/6/2022
Rolling Stones - Anfield, Liverpool, 9/6/2022
most viewed reviews
current edition
Lucky Ones - Slow Dance, Square Dance, Barn DanceVarious - Heroes & Villains – The Sound Of Los Angeles 1965-1968,
Def Leppard - Diamond Star Halos
Gabi Garbutt and the Illuminations - Cockerel
Girls At Our Best! - Pleasure
Soup Review - Go and See
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway - Crooked Tree
Dave Stewart - Ebony McQueen
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me: 20th Anniversary Edition
Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That...
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart