Review Summary: Both danceable and Brutal, Gtuk continues to produce solid albums. Kind of like if the Marion Bros. were on Speed, instead of Mushrooms.
Sebastian Hagedorn, AKA, GTUK is a small German man who screams like a caged animal whose been listening to Orhid records through his My First Sony Cassette Player over his Lo Fi Nintendo beats. On Face Value, thats pretty much the jist of it.
So what would someone like you, let's just presume a mild mannered person, be thinking or feeling listening to this album
Illusions to The Max? Nostalgia. If you're like me, you grew up around the time or was surrounded by Nintendo and Arcade Games. Now as a little kid, while all my friends were playing with their fancy shmancy Nintendo 64s and Playstations, I had to settle for ***ing books. Which is probably why I'm sitting here now writing this and not playing Grand Theft Auto. However, ever a play date did I spend either getting my ass kicked in Smash Bros., or watching other people play while I wallowed in frustration. So I stuck to reading books.
But now as I listen to this record, I can't help but feel not only nostalgia in the form 90s video games like the Mario Bros. and Pokemon, but Childlike. Sometimes, however, despite the tag "Happy Hardcore", it sounds like the Apocalypse. It's the now age old concept of melody and chaos, serenity and violence, the whole schpeel, you've heard it before. Only instead of breakneck Hardcore and post-rock like breakdowns, it's Electronic trances and Nintendo Speed rushes. And with nineteen songs in about half an hour, Illusions to the Max is truely a ***ing blitzkrieg of sound, reveling in dynamics and kicking your nerves in their rectum. With melodies that are much more complex than
Herzschlag or
Wir Sind Glücklich?, Illusions goes by swiftly, with Melodies that start, rush up, and then crash and burn into chaos. And on top of all that, it's catchy as ***. The melodies in tracks like “Happy Birthday Dresscodes” and “Dreams2” will be stuck in your head for days. And I personally think that this can get just as much Stupid Hipsters and clubbers alike on the dance floor, if not more, than Cut Copy, DJ Tiesto, Rihanna, Timbaland, or whatever stupid *** you're listening to, if it was correctly distributed.
Call it what you will; nintendocore, cybergrind, 8 bit screamo, it doesn't mater. It's eccentric, it's crude, it's awesome. Either listen and get kicked in the balls (figuratively) or don't, and get kicked in the balls (literally).
