With his new album Alter Ego, breakout techno juggernaut Blake Strange has your demon-sweating moshpit plans sorted.
Blake Strange has shared his new album Alter Ego. A collaboration with German-based label, Jannowitz, the nine-track project spans the reaches of electronica, from underground techno to dance floor-filling EDM.
Strange — who has quietly built a reputation as one of Australia’s brightest DJ exports — has enlisted an array of starry peers for Alter Ego, who each add their signature flair to multiple songs on the tracklist.
Alter Ego kicks off with opener Nightcrawler, whose grimy sound is every bit as nocturnal as its title suggests. With assists from international maestro Jakob, Nightcrawler boasts entrancing distorted vocals and a bone-rattling bassline, with enough intriguing electronic flairs to sustain its six-minute runtime.
From the sporadic glitch of backing synths effects to the atmospheric swell ahead of the drop, Nightcrawler ushers in the expansive techno that’s to come. Opting for quicker rhythms on second track Arrival, Strange and Jannowitz incorporate a noisy array of heavy treble and exhaling sound effects, as punctuated by a spacey surrounding synths.
The euphoric bass drop of Arrival — which dissipates into an ambient soundscape before dialling up the rhythm yet again — is replicated on the following title track, which boasts the starry credit of Jannowitz label head and Berlin juggernaut BOHO. The pair combine efforts for the album standout, pairing echoey reverb with ear-splitting base.
Perhaps the EP’s grooviest entry, Alter Ego seems purpose built for a late-night moshpit session, with laser-like sound effects and a climactic build up to its danceable bass drop. Elsewhere, on fellow album highlight Velvet Eyes, Strange ushers in a necessary change of pace with jungle-like backing percussion, while Obey incorporates sinister narration reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Like much of the surrounding tracklist, Obey is at its most satisfying towards the end, when each of the elements drip-fed by Strange reach their symphonic apex. Elsewhere, French DJ Mala Ika joins the fray on a remixed version of Alter Ego’s title track, adding a starrier, more celestial flair to the original without losing sight of its unmissable bassline.
Alter Ego follows Phantom as Strange’s second longer-form project of 2023. Elsewhere, the producer shared the recent EP Twisted in February. Alongside BOHO, Ika and Jakob, Strange has shared the decks with a slew of techno’s biggest names since his 2020 breakout, including the likes of Alan Fitzpatrick, Bart Skils and Thomas Schumacher, among others.
Listen to Strange’s new Jannowitz collaboration Alter Ego below.
