Boston’s Weekly Dig (US)

Rausch (roughly translated, it means white noise) is the latest album from Frank Bretschneider, co-founder of the excellent German ultra-minimal electronic music imprint Raster Noton. Given the title, one might expect blasts of hissing static. Instead, Bretschneider offers delicate, often pinprick-like sounds – gentle taps, clicks, pads and pings – which he then fashions into compositions that are spare and minimal, yet rhythmically intricate. Tracks, such as the austere “Rund,” the undulating “Rausch,” and “Blank” with its popping Latin rhythms, flow almost seamlessly into each other, linked by drones, pops and hisses. It’s an exquisite disc and far more successful than Bretschneider’s most recent full-length, Rand (on Mille Plateaux), which often seemed on the verge of disintegration. Highly recommended. – S. Bolle