Objekt: "Ratchet"

It’s probably safe to assume that “ratchet”, as used by the Berlin producer Objekt, has little to do with its American vernacular meaning—a wild-card-like connotation that shifts according to context—and more to do with tools, cranks, and tension.

One of the rare uptempo cuts on Objekt’s spellbinding debut, Flatland, “Ratchet” and its snapping syncopations are firmly rooted in an electro tradition stretching through Kraftwerk, Drexciya, I-F, Soul Oddity, and even Autechre. Indeed, the way it rolls up influences from throughout that history is a little like a snowball gathering mass as it goes hurtling down the mountainside, bouncing from crag to crag.  

Given its white-knuckled momentum, it’s one of the few cuts from the album you might expect to hear in a DJ set. But it also has a snowball effect within the context of the album, embedded with sounds that occur throughout—glassy drones, shards of white noise, metal crunch—like so many chunks of gravel.

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