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Baltes & Zäyn presents the official animeted video “VOIGHT KAMPFF MACHINE”
SHOP: https://www.echozone.de/ean/4262522210213
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/mxL3TW3qo_Q
The current BALTES & ZÄYN two-part single, VOIGHT – KAMPFF MACHINE / BLADE RUNNER GLOW returns to Ridley Scott’s neo-noir cult classic Blade Runner with hints of Denis Villeneuve’s superb, epic sequel, Blade Runner 2049.
Whereas the very first single RACHAEL OF THE SMOKEY EYES portrays how, from Deckard’s point of view, in the course of administering the notorious Voight-Kampff Test on Rachael, the blade runner falls in helplessly love with the replicant, VOIGHT – KAMPFF MACHINE and BLADE RUNNER GLOW heart-breakingly portray Rachael’s side of the story in Rachael’s own voice.
VOIGHT – KAMPFF MACHINE, referring to the advanced interrogational tool used to expose replicants, not only describes Rachael‘s first encounter with Deckard during the test, when it becomes an astonishing love-at-first-sight moment for both, but goes further, recounting the crushing realization of her status as reviled replicant, her mad flight from the unpleasant truth of her own nature, through the dark, neon-limned labyrinth of L.A., which puts her in Deckard’s cross-hairs as a replicant gone rogue. In an unexpected twist, she saves Deckard’s life by shooting his assailant with Deckard‘s own gun. This leads to the delirious consummation of their love in his apartment and the realization that are extricated in a strange pas de deux, a folie à deux.
BLADE RUNNER GLOW goes even further, revealing that their love is bigger than both of them. It is initially a cri de coeur, a heart-rending lament by Rachael, after the shattering realization that her cherished memories are faux implants. The image of a pink birthday cake from the sequel, signals the song venturing into Blade Runner 2049 territory. Originally the middle eight and the third and final refrain, taken out of VOIGHT- KAMPFF MACHINE, and musically reinterpreted, BLADE RUNNER GLOW closes with a dead Rachael chillingly recounting how she gladly accepted her tragic fate; falling in love with Deckard and dying while giving birth to their daughter, sacrificing herself to manifest an astonishing, world-changing miracle. At the same time, she admits to have been initially drawn to Deckard by her fascination with his toxic masculinity, his toxic “Blade Runner Glow”.
This two-part single presents vividly contrasting musical arrangements and atmospheres. VOIGHT – KAMPFF MACHINE‘s musical backdrop is driving, metallic, classic BALTES; heavily and darkly electronic, an EBM wall-of-sound instrumental. It is prefaced by a dark, electronic sound collage to set the scene with two iconic samples from Blade Runner; Deckard giving voice commands to his computer to enlarge photographic evidence, then a fragment of Replicant Roy Batty‘s space-faring monologue.
ZÄYN‘S plaintive vocal delivery is accompanied by a gorgeously faërie pencilling of Alicia’s child-like vocals, evoking the unforgettable, fragile neo-noir beauty of Rachael. The pounding rhythm track is punctuated by intriguing, electronic sound samples and riffs. The song ends with Alicia’s haunting vocalizations.
In contrast, BLADE RUNNER GLOW, which opens with Deckard‘s first questions from the iconic test scene, is nestled in a delicate piano vignette in the style of Vladimir Cosma piano pieces from the 1976 French horror film about sentient robots replacing humans, Le Collectionneur de cerveaux (The Collector of Brains), and from Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981 cult classic Diva, as well as Satie and Ravel’s Impressionist piano compositions. The instrumental builds up into an electrifying, synthesizer-saturated, Trevor-Horn-style wall of sound with accelerated tempo via half-time percussion, a 1 minute, 33 second opus, petering out in electronically treated echoes of the titular “Blade Runner glow”, fading forlornly into the void.
“We will flee LA,
My execution stayed.
You will put a life in my replicant womb
Birthing our child will take me to my doom
To a cold, unmarked tomb, in twenty-forty-nine.
I did not know where on earth to go
So I followed your toxic Blade Runner glow.”
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