Charlotte de Witte - The Healer EP

Charlotte de Witte
The Healer EP
2018
Spotify

It may surprise you that a lot of female techno DJs go by male names. It started as a way to trick promoters into actually booking them rather than immediately writing them off due to their gender. It's a practice that is so incredibly sexist and out of touch that it's almost unimaginable. It crosses two lines, first discrimination based solely on gender and two it means that these promoters were never actually listening to the artists anyway. Pre Spotify you could maybe get away with this because tracks were hard to find outside of an internet search, but today there just is no excuse. Especially when it comes to Charlotte de Witte (formally Raving George). Her music is aggressive bare bones techno here to suck in your soul. The beats grow and morph but always maintain a dark edge. It feels like a haze growing out of a Forrest, slowly but surely inching it's way towards you. The moments where you are overtaken are the most compelling, those where the snares leave and all you are left with is this massive and deep bass track. "Kuda" is one of those tracks. The drums rule everything and push the whole track forward always progressing towards something even if you don't quite know what it is yet. You can get lost in the blackness, and rather than take you on some far off Journey Witte is content to keep you right here in this very moment.

The Healer feels really immersive with every new track taking over your entire perspective. "Song of the Wood Nymph" brings in this new airy style to the album and sort of acts as this decompression chamber from the techno drama you have been going through. It makes the daylight feel a little less harsh and the decisions you made the night before a little more bearable. The no nonsense of this album is rather dramatic; Instead of slowly bringing you to a place this record hits you with hard techno right off the bat. It's a super solid album from someone who clearly knows and loves their clean techno. Could I do an hour of this music? Probably not, but this nice little 25 minute package feels just right.

7.9 out of 10