NEWS
EVENTS
Objekt: Get To Know
Other | Friday 3rd October 2014 | norbs
Objekt, real name TJ Hertz, is a British born producer and DJ currently hailing from Berlin. Although his existing discography is fairly concise, his boundary-pushing releases – which blend elements from a number of electronic dance subgenres – have won him wide acclaim. As a DJ as well as a producer, he is a figure at the cutting edge of the underground. Currently he is most strongly associated with the techno scene, yet dubstep influences are clear in a number of tracks, notably his first, eponymous white label release, The Goose that Got Away (2011).
At the beginning of September, the record label PAN released a statement announcing the forthcoming release of Objekt’s debut full-length LP, to be entitled ‘Flatland’.
The date set for release is the 20th of October. To the delight of fans, PAN have just streamed a teaser off the forthcoming album, a track called Second Witness.
A central idea in Objekt’s work is that of critical self-awareness; his tracks combine references to existing dance subgenres with provocative reinterpretations of ‘classic’ electronic dance music ideas. Objekt has spoken about this idea of pastiche in relation to the track Cactus (2011) which, in an interview with Dazed in 2012, he described as “literally a comedy song – an ode to Rusko, if you like”.
Whether you find the track comedic, or seriously thought-provoking, it’s certainly pretty impossible to dance to (trust me – I tried and failed miserably once). Yet it’s potent, weighty and inventive. Listening to it with Rusko in mind had never occurred to me, but it’s interesting to imagine the thought process which led from, say, Cockney Thug to Cactus.
In their statement, PAN have described the forthcoming LP as one riddled with ‘cross-references’ linking the eleven original tracks and Objekt’s existing work. The album is said to weave ‘between the alien and the hauntingly familiar’. This seems to suggest, again, a current tendency to call into question and re-evaluate cultural ideas; un-familiarizing the familiar, as it were.
Second Witness, the teaser from the forthcoming album (linked below), combines an ambient, luxurious wash of sustained synths and a potent bass with razor-sharp, futuristic bleeps and jagged crackles reminiscent of something from Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy.
As a taster, it’s an interesting choice. It’s left me wondering what to expect from the rest of Objekt’s album. From the sounds of Second Witness, it seems that TJ Hertz is stretching his feelers ever-further outwards, searching for more boundaries to push against, new ways to interpret and re-interpret.
The time has come for Objekt to show us what he’s got. Releasing a full length LP is, of course, a completely different story to releasing singles; a good debut album is a real milestone. Let’s hope he lives up to his already formidable reputation.
Flatland (Forthcoming) - Tracklist
1. Agnes Revenge
2. One Fell Swoop
3. Ratchet
4. Strays
5. Agnes Apparatus
6. Dogma
7. First Witness
8. Interlude (Whodunnit?)
9. Second Witness
10. One Stitch Follows Another
11. Cataracts
