Review: Pierce Warnecke – The Electronic Heart

The Electronic Heart is the latest EP from producer/video artist Pierce Warnecke. It’s a 6-track electro-glitch feast for the senses. As the title suggests, there’s a good balance between organic and synthetic properties here. The music is almost entirely made from distorted synth sounds but the arrangements are incredibly sophisticated and human. The EP starts off with a straightforward lo-fi electro track—but as it progresses, the beats become more fragmented and unexpected. In “The Art of Error,” sounds are skipping, splitting and regenerating into new forms—creating the perfect soundtrack to a cellular-level science video.

Warnecke is incredibly successful at making everything sound machinelike. Hi-hats sound like hydraulic pumps, pads sound like electrical surges and the beats pump, pulse, tick, breathe, repeat, spin, click and power down. In “Excision of the Heart,” a robot voice repeats “H. E. A. R. T.,” while synth arpeggiations mimic an internal body process reacting to the removal of a human heart. Things begin to spiral out of control by the final track, “RnBeast,” which is chock full of millisecond samples and florescent rainbow-style synth riffs. If this EP were to represent the health of a patient during medical procedures, they would have definitely died by the end. It’s safe to say they didn’t go without a fight.  ~ tom

To view Warnecke’s experimental video projects, check out www.vimeo.com/user1185399. To purchase or sample more of The Electronic Heart, visit iTunes or BEE Records.

MP3 1: Pierce Warnecke – Used Romamtricks
MP3 2: Pierce Warnecke – Excision of the Heart

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