Retrofate is the fourth album by Assassun the other solo project of Blackjack Illuminist records main man Leonard Alexander Donat of Vlimmer fame. It is another dark swirling electronic maelstrom in touch with the darkness of our dystopian times, from this most over productive Berliner.
The album opens with Poisonalan a dark nasty electronic dancefloor screed against the Poisonous treacherous times we are living through and Alan's role in these fateful times, Tornadoes sweep through decimating the phone zombies and anyone else burying their heads in modern technology.
At The Kiwi Crates you are struck by hostile feelings of the person who assails the narrator, moaning about how they look and walk and why are they by the Kiwi Crates, why would you eat furry fruit, can you escape the ranting moron, or will you have to take some real action to be able to grocery shop in peace, pounding heartbeat percussion, raging synths and the despair of arguments waiting to happen following you all over town, how can you get some peace in this modern malaise.
1995 is a warped journey back to what feels like the halcyon days of 1995, despite the arguments and fights over football and other mundane parts of life, sirens sound and the synth's distort time and reality, oh to be back in 1995 dancing onstage supporting WASP and The Damned once more, back living your old life again, oh yeah that was my life in 95. Assassun just wants an answer to why he is back on this ground again.
Past/I N B E T W E E N/Future which way would you prefer to go, well currently most of the people I know would want to go back to the pre digital days, far fewer cameras and less authoritarian times, but if you came from East Germany that may not be the case for obvious reasons, the lyrics here ask would you prefer paper or digital history with a good dark dance beat.
D.E.A.T.H. is all that's left, while the wobbly bass shakes the walls and you give into the embrace of the one avoidable truth D.E.A.T.H. comes to all of us, Is the fate described on this tune any worse, he mocks anyone who believes they can dodge the inevitable.
The Sons Of The United Plagues is doom-laden reflections of just how twisted reality has become, death stalks the globe, the evil are displacing everything around them. Abysmalism opens sounding a bit brighter, before the reality of how Abysmalism seems to be the creed of our current rulers, how deep we have fallen into this abyss is discussed with glacial synths and shattering synth drums with a wailing banshee haunting your every waking moment.
Off The Globe is where we want to send the worst of the worst Billionaires and those who do there bidding for them, stick 'em in a rocket and shoot them Off The Globe sci fi synth distortions help rope them into the furthest reaches of hell where they ought to live.
Gatekeeper is techno drum and bass wonky dancefloor action, with questions for those that seek to be our gatekeepers and why they seem to want to make things worse, for the conditionality of the distorted reality they claim as prime truth.
The album closes with Concrete Of Times a coda for the pain and distress anyone with feelings and a sense of wanting to live in a better world currently feels, like you are wading through concrete unable to move stasis closing in, anything to find a way through to a point when you could believe that better days are here again, but instead you are just banging your head against the Concrete of Time.
Find out more at https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/retrofate https://www.facebook.com/assassunband
