Another contributor to 2013's most divisive album, Kanye's strange alt-rap experiment Yeezus, was French producer Mike Levy, otherwise known by his stage name, Gesaffelstein. He worked on one of the album's more accessible singles, Black Skinhead, as well as contributing the jarring, high-frequency squeals of Send It Up. Gesaffelstein's contributions to these tracks should be readily apparent after giving his full length, titled Aleph, a proper listen. Levy's sound of choice is incredibly thick, layered, bass-heavy and ominous. Listening to Aleph leaves me with a mental image of some dark, cyberpunk club playing Gesaffelstein's industrial techno at deafening volume while the world outside crumbles apart from the sheer sound of it all.
I was first introduced to this album after stumbling upon the must-see music video for the song Pursuit. It's full of guns, fighter jets, scientists, iron fists, golden statues, and naked butts, all beautifully captured in a series of expanding wide frame shots. It also suits the mood of Gesaffelstein's music very well. The song is a raging club banger, only for a club you'd probably regret going to. Alongside Pursuit, this album offers a number of other songs that fit this category as well. Obsession is a nightmarish, pounding beat that continually grows louder and louder. Hellifornia is a super twisted and sickly version of some trap music hook you'd likely hear in an average club. Duel is simply a relentless techno assault. Hate or Glory is infused with the same kind of darkness that permeated Pursuit. And Trans seems like an appropriate techno banger to end your night at the club from the deepest corner of hell.
In between all these tracks of industrial techno insanity are a number of ethereal "head-space" songs that Gesaffelstein uses to give Aleph a bit of range, and I can only assume to give the listener a break from the heart-pounding pace of this hour-long album. Herein lies the only problem for me, I find that Aleph would have been an easier listen without these soft, spacey tracks littered throughout. Better to go all out and make a shorter, bat-shit-crazy album than one that wanders off on strange and unfamiliar tangents, but that's probably just my opinion (as is this entire blog dontcha know). There are also two fairly strange tracks that feature the same spoken word artist (does anyone know who this is?), the intro Out of Line, and Destinations. These songs are definitely interesting, I think they really add to the creepy, cyberpunk atmosphere of Aleph so I appreciate them as a break from the merciless techno assault that is every other track on this record.
I think that Aleph might have been better as a shorter but more ruthless album, keeping to the raging techno beats that seem to be Gesaffelstein's staple sound rather than venturing off into other territories. But at the end of the day, I find myself coming back to Aleph over and over. It's just one of those highly-addicitive, high-energy albums that I love; but it's also one that involves me skipping over a lot of tracks.
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