Anthony Rother is quite fond of absolutes. The German producer’s latest release is called This Is Electro. It is a retrospective collection of his work.
It sounds presumptuous to give the record such a definitive title. Yet it would be a mistake to overlook Rother’s impact on modern electronic music.
He rose to prominence in the ‘90s, with such groundbreaking releases as ‘Sex With The Machines’, ‘Red Light District’ and ‘Destroy Him My Robots’.
These austere tracks married Kraftwerk’s electro pop sensibilities, with crisp production and a bleakly industrial yet evocative outlook.
He consolidated this style on 2000’s Simulationszeitalter album, which was based on an imaginary city, PsyCity, and which predated the paranoia of post 9-11 realpolitik with chilling accuracy.
However, in recent years Rother has focused on more accessible 4/4-based electro house and set up the Datapunk label.
“This collection is my definition of electro, the way I see this music,” he says. “It's experimental music. I feel that I redefine the borders of electro.”
Fans of Rother’s ‘90s work were shocked at his move into electro house. He answers his critics with the argument that electronic music only escaped the doldrums it was languishing in at the start of this century by becoming more open to different styles and moods: “Electronic music has come through a very hard time, but now there is a revival.”
Thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever to seek out great new music, he says. “We have passed the period when everything was illegal on the internet. Now people are downloading and paying for material they cherish, which makes it easier for artists to pursue their projects.”
Listen to the likes of ‘Die Macht’ and ‘Simulationszeitalter’ and you hear Rother imagining a dark, nightmarish vision of the future.
The German producer claims that his input is often secondary, that he is following an inner sensibility he cannot fully articulate.
“The music creates this mood, not me. I just follow. It tells me the direction I need to go in and then the lyrics come naturally,” he states.
Equal parts John Carpenter film score, ‘80s industrial racket and Kraftwerk-style electro, Rother sometimes seems to sail close to a totalitarian/Nazi aesthetic. Or, at any rate, to a camp, Laibach-esque pastiche thereof. He is, however, adamant his work has no such connotations.
Music, he believes, has the potential to transport the listener. The destination need not always be somewhere pleasant.
“If you can control your mind, then you can go into this parallel universe,” he says. “But if you can’t control it and certain beliefs take over, there is a problem. Music has taken me into different levels of consciousness and I have been in worlds where I have been frightened because it became scary and unpleasant. But surely music should afford the listener such possibilities. This is the richest and most fascinating part of any art.”