Otto Von Schirach ~ Global Speaker Fisting
Global Speaker Fisting’s
cover image comes on like an exagerrated Freddie Kruger - which is something
of an achievement in itself. The image prompts expectations about the music
which are roundly fulfilled, but the thought also occurs that if the packaging
had been different so too might its reception have been. Schirach’s
website describes the release thus: “The Gangster of DSP™ (digital
signal processing) is back with a new full length album entitled: "Global
Speaker Fisting": Set to stir up Grandma's Urinary Track Infection.”
Schirach does seem to have a sense of humour, unfortunately it's a joke that's
been explored and hammered to death long ago. Schirach as Tourettes-ridden
imp licking his lips with a forked tongue, Schirach as greedy troll grasping
hungrily at the listener’s knees: sound familiar? Just as the imagery
is an exaggerated reading of the folk-devil aspects of Aphex Twin circa Come
To Daddy/Windowlicker, so too is the music a hyperactively spastic conflation
of the tics and tropes of Mr R.D. James.
Alhough the whole thing is fairly enjoyable in a headache-inducing one-pass sort of a way, by presenting a parody of a cartoon its content proves overly-recursive and ultimately redundant. Schirach proffers no new horizons, just the all too familiar sound of a hamster cage being rattled. Global Speaker Fisting is surely set to be the latest soundtrack to teenagers locked in their rooms playing Half Life/Quake/Unreal Tournament (*) or doing nefarious things on their PCs.
(* delete as appropriate)
Alhough the whole thing is fairly enjoyable in a headache-inducing one-pass sort of a way, by presenting a parody of a cartoon its content proves overly-recursive and ultimately redundant. Schirach proffers no new horizons, just the all too familiar sound of a hamster cage being rattled. Global Speaker Fisting is surely set to be the latest soundtrack to teenagers locked in their rooms playing Half Life/Quake/Unreal Tournament (*) or doing nefarious things on their PCs.
(* delete as appropriate)
Colin Buttimer
December 2004