This is mostly relevant for anyone who has to be in a car with me: After two months on almost constant repeat, Charles Manier's At the Bottle (from Idol Tryouts) has been dethroned by T. Raumschmiere's The Game is not Over, featuring Miss Kittin, as favorite new track / thickest synths on the block. Interestingly enough, the Monster Truck Driver EP features an excellent remix by Mr. Manier's distant cousin Dabrye.

T.Raumschmiere is the alias of 27 year-old Berliner, Marco Haas. Gnarled bass-lines, known in German as 'Gnarzigkeit' have become his stylistic device. His brand of 'minimalism' is to achieve the 'maximum' with as few means as possible � with a decidedly punk ethos: why go for sterile minimalism when you can rock out? This bluntness informs the T.Raumschmiere sound: bass sequencing with scratched up, brushed down beats and no unnecessary breaks in the sound. He steers this huge menacing vehicle of a tune with an agility and snotty-nosed impertinence that gets under your fingernails like city grime. T.Raumschmiere cuts a dash as a full-body tattooed, oil stained techno-punk.

Amen.