It is well known that time expands the aura of cult albums. Especially since when it landed during the fall of 1997, this UFO is piloted by Christoph De Babalon (Jan Christoph Wolter in his private life), intrigued by his eclecticism. At a time where the blending of genres wasn’t so popular, If You’re Into It I’m Out Of It masterfully alternated between ambient, drum ‘n’ bass, drone, breakcore and many other electronic no man’s lands. To cap it all off, legend has it that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke described it as “the most menacing album I own!”, and that the crazy Alec Empire from Atari Teenage Riot was also a fan of this anthracite great mass. It’s only logical, since it was released by Digital Hardcore Recordings, a label precisely founded by Empire.
Anthracite, yes, not to say dark black… The music orchestrated by the DJ and producer born in Hamburg sounds like an impressive song of the dead. Christoph De Babalon doesn’t worship in vain a symbolist painter like Arnold Böcklin or a mystical director like Andrei Tarkovsky. The different electronic canvases he extends here probe the deeper and worst parts of the human soul (the fifteen minutes in zero gravity and under pressure of Opium which open the album) and possess the unhealthy power of electroshock therapies (Water). Above all, they form a work ahead of its time that should be rediscovered urgently. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz