Holger Zilske

Holz is the first full-length release from Berlin's Holger Zilske, though he's released two albums as Smash TV on BPitch Control. The artist has produced with Ellen Allien and has done remixes with artists such as Golden Boy with Miss Kittin, Dirtcrew, as well as Adam Freeland. The debut artist album by Holger Zilske is minimal and solidly downtempo. "Work" creates sound images of punch clocks and percussive construction sites. Fourth track "Druckroam" sounds a bit like a foghorn designed to wake people from a deadened sleep. This album creates the kind of sounds you might imagine played live in a dark room lit by candles or that kind of thing. It is groovy and cool. Still, upon early listens some of the songs seem disconnected and vague, yet the same songs are cooperative in the vibrancy of production. Final track "To Them To Me" is an electro-acoustic vocal track of great strength sung by unsigned Swedish artist August Landelius and musically somehow darkly reminiscent of a sweet-voiced Tom Waits in an old piano bar.