AZ-Rotator

"Science of Chance" (Album, 2005)

Madrid-based experimenter Uge Ortiz's first album (for the quality German Ad Noiseam label) sounds like the music the street people in Blade Runner might listen to. Seemingly starting with the guiding principle that there are no compositional rules, just a sound void that can be filled with whatever stimulates Ortiz's brain and ears at the same time, the aptly-entitled Science of Chance squishes aspects of breakbeat and IDM into a ruthlessly fragmented and yet strangely ambient noise.

Essentially instrumental soundscapes, the sculptural quality of Ortiz's approach is perhaps its most striking feature. This would be equally at home in a clinical white cube art gallery as an audio installation piece as it has been at experimental music festivals like Germany's famous Machinenfest or Spain's lesser known Decibelio. Those bored by the plethora of artists utilising retro hardware and sound patches to create electro pop songs, those who instead prefer their musical explorations to be bang up to date and resolutely digital, those who are as intellectually driven to music as they are aesthetically, all should take to AZ-Rotator's tumbling beats, soft harmonies and blended electronica rabidly. I find myself floating somewhere in that mix, finding tracks like Cmosat and album coda Exoma that lead with the melodies rather than the beats, the most satisfying. 7/10

Rob Dyer (October 2009)