There’s always someone around who’s ready to swear that you can’t totally rock out on a synth or much less a laptop. Beware. Giving this thought mindspace is demonstrably one of the first steps people take on the way to becoming card-carrying members of the <insert name of old school guitar-centric popular music genre here> Taliban! You know them. You’ve seen them at shows, standing motionless next to the mixing booth. And 100% of people who say dumb-ass things like that have never seen Huoratron live. It’s a fact.
Take them to a show before it’s too late!
Huoratron is a one-man-made hurricane of pummeling techno beats that manage, despite the brutality, to stay on the good side of funky and retain an almost irresistibly squelchy groove. In what is a pretty rare state of affairs in this genre, the charisma and character of Aku Raski is central to Huoratron as a work of art and music. His towering, bear-like figure lives off and accentuates the music emanating from his laptop at live shows. It’s seemingly seven feet (really he’s about a foot shorter…) of swinging arms and punching fists. Huoratron live is like being bear-hugged into an improved state from the one you entered the bar, nightclub or festival tent in. On videos he contorts his face into extreme expressions and occupies so much space on screen, you’ll feel crowded watching it.
Aku Raski started Huoratron in 2002 as a project for creating techno tunes using two Nintendo Gameboys, but eventually the dogma became too confining. “Luckily” enough, one of his Gameboy batteries crapped out right before a show in Norway, wiping the memory of the device and half the set with it. This resulted in some lightning fast adjustment and the end of the Gameboy era in the annals of Huoratron. Now Aku rocks a more technologically advanced setup and has graduated from the extremely niche chiptune roots of the project to a more worldly brand of techno. But, we reiterate, it rocks hard, no matter what you call it.
- A 7-track EP called Prevenge came out in 2010
- New album due out early in 2012
- Has remixed, among others, M.I.A: http://pitchfork.com/news/41167-mia-releases-remix-ep
- Management: Dougie Bohay at Last Gang Management
- Booking (North America): Alan Gary at AM Only
- Booking /UK/Europe): Andy Duggan at Primary
- Press (North America): Kevin Wortis at Rock Steady Music
- Press (UK/Europe) Sam Hesketh at Division Promotions
- http://www.myspace.com/huoratron
