Though he was one half of the disbanded duo Mueran Humanos, on ‘Crecer y Decrecer’ (‘Growing and Shrinking’), his debut solo single, Tomás Nochteff more than doubles himself to make up for any perceived lack of personnel.
Live, and now exemplified perfectly on this track, he works as a one-man band, looping and layering to build a hypnotic and relentlessly driving round of drum machine, synth and bass guitar. I was lucky enough to catch him support (and straight after, play in the band of) Anika last year, and was instantaneously rapt by his transcendental harnessing of rhythm. His music surrounds the listener near-corporially: strobing, hazy, pounding heavy as concrete on your chest. And it’s inescapably danceable.
There’s a little something vampiric about Nochteff’s music. Perhaps it’s the gothic industrial-ness of it, or its seeming timelessness, or, most likely, its supernatural cool. It’s dark and brooding. But then, un-vampiric, it’s also vital, industriously alive. Putting the single on loop works to whip this listener up into a state of great determination.
Excitingly, ‘Crecer y Decrecer’ is taken from a forthcoming album, Machine Times, due in February of next year. It was all recorded in Berlin (listeners of ‘Crecer y Decrecer’ surely couldn’t imagine it being conceived anywhere else), which is also where the Argentine Nochteff has lived since 2008. If this single, his live shows, his previous projects, and Berlin as a backdrop are all anything to go by, Machine Times will be a time to revel in.
