The word ‘Echokrank’ describes the acoustic hallucination suffered by deep-sea divers when they rise to the surface of the water too quickly. This correspondence between aurality and suffering is what this German duo claims to be all about. They describe themselves as a ‘trans-experimental-neuro-non-electro’ outfit, whose mission is to exact revenge on the technology that has ‘attacked’ them all their lives (one can only wonder in what kind of sense: a computer error that miscalculated their income tax perhaps? A rogue dentist’s drill?!).

However, despite their protestations that they are in no way indebted to an electro musical aesthetic, this is indeed where Echokrank’s roots lie, albeit tinged with a fierce allegiance to punk and industrial music. On tracks such as Slipstick and A’S, TT’S PP Echokrank explore the idea of music as an irritant, with rhythms that stop and start, then belch into life with all the random energy of autonomous machines that are no longer answerable to human control.

On yeah, and Bubblegum Alert is strangely reminiscent of the Moomins being given vocal definition by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.