May 2009
1 post
Skug: Passage
February 2009
1 post
Cyclic Defrost: Passage
While they’re still best known to their respective mothers as Marty Frank and Zak Roberts, Abelcain and Cdatakill have both reached a point where they’re considered ‘veterans’ of the US breakcore scene, having released impressive backcatalogues through labels such as Sublight and Low Res. This shared album release ‘Passage’ on Ad Noiseam follows in the wake of Abelcain and Cdatakill’s...
January 2009
2 posts
Machinist: Passage
Два очень активных и влиятельных американских резидента мировой брейкор-сцены ABELCAIN и CDATAKILL решили выпустить коллаборационный сплит-альбом, включающий треки с ранее изданных винилов “Six Stigmata” и “Playing With Knives” плюс четыре новые совместные композиции. Перед нами классический мелодичный брейкор, хорошо спродюсированный и исполненный на высоком техническом...
Dagheisha.com: Passage
Vari scambi di coppia (all’interno della stessa e unica coppia…) vengono praticati da Abelcain e Cdatakill, che scelgono di riportare alla luce due 12 pollici pubblicati in modalità condivisa nel 2002 (‘Playing With Knives’ su Low Res Records e ‘The Six Stigmata’ su Zhark International) e ad essi aggiungono altre quattro tracce inedite per un totale di quattordici pezzi e oltre settanta minuti di...
October 2008
51 posts
Cyclic Defrost Magazine: Valentine
“This song’s about killing yourself, this song’s about depression, the women who leave. The car has no brakes and we’re flooring it. We’re gonna hit something - so what…” A terse voice spitting out these words opens ‘No Brakes’, the first track on Valentine. With sampled/cut-up female vocals and gloomy piano, this almost sounds like a bad trip version of Moby. Cdatakill is one Zak Roberts, a...
Sonic Seducer Magazine: Valentine
Auf seinem dritten Vollzeitwerk lässt es die Breakcore-Ikone ungewöhnlich ruhig angehen. Anstatt klanggewordenen Wahnsinn in Höllentempo zu zerhacken, in Rudimenten wieder zusammenzusetzen oder gründlich zu verkrempeln, bewegt sich Zak Roberts aus Denver/Colorado jetzt eher zwischen Dub und Trip Hop. Aber keine Angst: von problemloser Konsumierbarkeit ist man noch weit entfernt. Alles, was...
Pop Up Magazine: Valentine
Zgodnie z niewypowiedzianą regułą niemieckiej wytwórni Ad Noiseam, pod pseudonimem Cdatakill ukrywa się jeden tylko muzyk, a mianowicie pochodzący z Denver Zak Roberts. Jednak niemalże dla zaprzeczenia innej reguły tego labela, kojarzącego się z ekstremalną elektroniką, miast potężnych nawałnic połamanych rytmów i noise’owych eksplozji ciskanych słuchaczowi prosto w twarz, Cdatakill stawia na...
Connexion Bizarre: an interview with Zak Roberts
Click here to read
Vital Weekly: Valentine
If you thought that everything coming out of the breakcore-community deals with firestorms of explosive breakbeats, Zak Roberts teaches you quite another lesson on the latest shot from his project Cdatakill. In contrast to most other releases from the breakcore-field the rhythm-texture of breakbeats does not smash the face of the listener from the forefront of the sound picture. It is more...
Gothtronic.com: Valentine
Cdatakill is a band that certainly isn’t among my favourites, but made quite a name by combining several genres and ideas. Both Cdatakill and the label Ad Noiseam are becoming more and more popular in both noise/industrial and the d’n’b-scene and it’s clear “Valentine” can only strenghten this position. The biography mentions ‘a very mature, interesting and beautiful album full of surprises...
Slug Magazine: Valentine
Grooves Magazine: Valentine
Denver-based producer Zak Roberts is certainly no stranger to fans of all things breakcore, having released a slew of characteristically aggressive records since the early ’90s on a number of different labels including Zhark and Lo Res. Valentine represents a significant break from the rapid-fire breakbeats of 2004’s The Cursed Species and shows Roberts venturing into dub-infected downbeat...
Igloo Magazine: Valentine
Yet another reason to love the ever fascinating Ad Noiseam label is how the artists are allowed room to grow. Zak Roberts, a.k.a. Cdatakill, has made his name over the last few years by grinding up the breakcore scene (with two previous records on Ad Noiseam, as well as releases on Zhark, Low Res, and Eupholus) and yet, with Valentine, he’s jettisoned most of that furious staccato beat work for...
Goon: Valentine
Schlendrian (Best of 2006): Valentine
Legacy Magazine: Valentine
Black: Valentine
Boomkat.com: Valentine
If the notion of trip-hop sends a chill down your spine, then you’ll want to keep clear of Cdatakill’s press release, wherein the T word is invoked to describe the beat hackers latest direction… So is it? Well no, not really - unless your version of trip-hop is mired in dub and seems on the perpetual brink of decay. Having lit the breakcore firmament throughout the 1990’s, Zak Roberts finally...
Textura: Valentine
That Zak Roberts’ Cdatakill sound defies easy categorization is one of its most appealing qualities and ultimately a testament to the uniqueness of Valentine’s sound. Apparently, there was formerly a pronounced breakcore dimension to Cdatakill’s sound but little trace of that remains on Valentine. Instead, Roberts opts for hazily textured and hallucinatory trip-hop and dub soundscapes haunted by...
Freemusic.cz: Valentine
Libo-li breakcore? A raději temný, valivý a zvukově agresivní než trhající rekordy v počtu bpm, či ve výsledku neposlouchatelný na úkor experimentování? Že ano? Zabijte data a “Miláček” vás odnese rovnou před brány elektronického inferna. Ad Noiseam Šestašedesátý release berlínského labelu Ad Noiseam jako by v sobě opravdu měl něco ďábelského. Není to sice čistokrevný zvukový devildom - tři šestky...
Raveline: Valentine
Der Medienkonverter: Valentine
Zwei Jahre ist es her, seit Cdatakill den letzten Output veröffentlicht hat. Im Gegensatz zum 2004er Album “The Cursed Species” fabriziert er eine 180-Grad-Wende und demonstriert damit wieder einmal seine musikalische Eigenständigkeit. Wen wundert es, schließlich ist Zak Roberts auch schon über zehn Jahre im Musikbusiness unterwegs und hat einiges an Experimenten hinter sich. Sein Drang nach dem...
Orkus: Valentine
D-Side: Valentine
Tokafi.com: Valentine
Just like the universe, energy is infinite. It can not be destroyed, only transformed into a different state. This physical wisdom is a pretty good picture to explain to a die-hard breakcore fan, why the new album by genre-heroes Cdatakill still rocks superbly, despite being very different from anything they have done before and indeed a bit more “cultivated”. It is also a good metaphor for those...
Vice Magazine: Valentine
De:bug: Valentine
Machinist: Valentine
На своем новом альбоме Zak Roberts ака CDATAKILL продолжает много экспериментировать и приятно удивлять. Кажется, на этот раз музыкант задался целью создать что-то умопомрачительно красивое, драйвовое и экзотичное. По-моему, все у него получилось классно, с претензией на рождение нового электронного поджанра, который можно было бы назвать, скажем, dark’n’beauty noise. Короче, вы услышите на...
Barcode E-zine: Valentine
Certainly a more cultured album than Zak Roberts’s previous excursions into heavy breakcore, Valentine breaks down the fury of The Cursed Species (2004) to focus on a much deeper and more challenging concept. When the pace of music is slower, the listener has more elbow room to focus on moods and atmospheres and pick apart the production, and through dissection Roberts proves that there is...
Schlendrian: Valentine
Persona Non Grata: Valentine
Ein Kunstwerk, ein Meisterwerk. Weil es nichts braucht außer sich selbst. Weil es so fernab von allem anderen ist. Weil es sich, und damit mich und dich, frei von Bezüglichkeiten unendlich lang in dem Schwebezustand, der Musik so schwer greifbar und damit umso interessanter und schöner macht, halten kann. 11x nimmt uns Zak Roberts aka CDatakill an die Hand, um diese dann bei Eintritt in die...
Moving Hand Music Magazine: The Cursed Species
Zak Roberts (Cdatakill) must now be considered as one of the pioneers of the breakcore genre. He has produced numerous releases on labels such as Suburban Trash, Low Res, No Room For Talent, Zhark etc. “The Cursed Species” is his second full-length album, following his debut “Paradise”, also on Ad Noiseam, from 2003. Given his long experience in the breakcore genre, it hardly comes as a surprise...
Slug Magazine: The Cursed Species
Aural Pressure: The Cursed Species
This CD wasn’t what I was expecting… But in a good way. I’d predicted something a little noisier, but while “The Cursed Species” is far from being ambient, it certainly holds more surprises and covers a broader musical range than your typical rhythmic-noise or breakcore outing. The breakcore influence is there alright, but the overall sound is much more organic. Hell, some of the beats almost...
Octopus: The Cursed Species
Entre breakcore souple et électronica trouble, Zak Roberts aka Cdatakill s’emploie depuis deux albums à mettre en relief les formes les plus aériennes de la techno industrielle. Puisant sa douce et sombre frénésie dans l’esthétique sonore digitale de la body-music (”Reclamation song”), dans son goût pour les beats déstructurés (”Exorcise the demons”) et les échappées atmosphériques tortueuses...
Synthetic Noize: The Cursed Species
Most of the greatest figures from the original wave of artists referred to as “breakcore” have dropped the recurring gimmicks of this genre, in order to “hybridize” their complex broken rhythmic patterns with other major musical forms. And it’s a good thing that they did, as it would quickly have become tedious. Of course, hopes were high with CDATAKILL. With “Paradise”, they had focused on...
Barcode E-zine: The Cursed Species
Zak Roberts presents his second full-length album here, following on from his noisy debut, Paradise. This time, Roberts concentrates more on breakbeats, with each track providing kicking beats that surround themselves in throbbing cyber bass lines, crunched up samples and power keyboards. Roberts tries his best to vary the themes within his strict, break-driven routines, How To Kill People And Get...
D-Side: The Cursed Species
Igloo Magazine: The Cursed Species
Zak Roberts aka Cdatakill says about the thought process that germinated his second full-length release, The Cursed Species, that he wanted to reclaim old school sounds, to make them his own and retrieve them from the tyranny of “happy hardcore.” Harder, faster, louder than Paradise, his previous Ad Noiseam release, The Cursed Species eschews atmosphere and noise for the giddy power of the dance...
Vital Weekly: The Cursed Species
The Berlin based Ad Noiseam label specializes in various kinds of electronic dance related music, be it breakcore, be it hip hop or be it clicks and cuts. Their recent autumn campaign shows these various interests very well. Somehow I missed out the first CD by CDatakill, aka Zak Roberts, but ‘The Crushed Species’ leaves a good impression, even when I am not a lover of breakcore per se. If I...
Black Magazine: The Cursed Species
Obwohl die Beats schneller und gehetzter geworden sind, die dunkle Synthetik herum die selbe geblieben ist, entpuppt sich CDATAKILLs Wucht beim zweiten Album als eine andere. Keine MCs, kein Hip Hop Flavor. Dafür viel trockenes Beatgestrüpp. Als fusionierten zwei artfremde Schichten, die sich in Zeitraffer tektonisch gegeneinander verschieben. Oben die zappeligen Breakcore-Beats, unten drunter ein...
Connexion Bizarre: The Cursed Species
After last year’s “Paradise”, Zak Roberts’ Cdatakill strikes again with his second CD release, “The Cursed Species”. The darkly abstract artwork and nihilistic titles pretty much give an idea of what mood one can expect, but the real treat starts soon after hitting “Play”. Saturation levels of breakbeats that’d put jackhammers to shame collide with eerie samples and synths throughout the album,...
Premonition Magazine: Paradise / Brazilian...
This is a funny paradise that Zak Roberts offers here. His Eden, or at any rate the sound interpretation he does of it, evokes more the hot flames of hell than the silly paded landscape of some paradise… and so much for the better. His music is a compromise between breakbeats’ clubbing and bewildering and light layers which constitutes his tracks by giving them a density and above all an obvious...
Musicb00m.it: Paradise / Brazilian Nightmare
La confezione di “Paradise” non racchiude solamente il nuovo omonimo lavoro di Cdatakill (precedente conosciuto come Cassandra Datakill), ma anche la ristampa di “Brazilian Nightmare”, originariamente rilasciato in sole cento copie dalla Eupholus Records. La proposta del nuovo Cdatakill si basa su una fusione di sonorità tipicamente statunitensi, che spaziano da una scomposta breakbeats ad un...
Grooves Magazine Feature
Moving Hands Music Magazine: Paradise / Brazilian...
Paradise was never lost according to some people and when Cdatakill pushes out their new album called Paradise I couldn’t agree more. Zak Roberts a.k.a. Cdatakill presents a trip into the undiscovered country of breakcore. I never really listened much to this kind of music, but it has a nice and an on-going beat and it makes me want to hear more. The first song Vodka Spitter has got a, for me,...
Immanence: Paradise / Brazilian Nightmare
Ever since hearing the fierce debut of DJ Rabies, Kick a Skinhead in the Face, I have become increasingly enamoured with the work of Zak Roberts. Moving from the razor-edged punk-attitude hardcore of DJ Rabies to the textural breakcore of Cdatakill (or Cassandra Datakill), his works have always carried a very distinct and personal aesthetic, making them some of the most interesting and exciting in...
Industrial Nation: Paradise / Brazilian Nightmare
Ad Noiseam’s knack for finding genre twisters and style fusers cannot be praised enough by me. Cdatakill’s album is once again not at all what I had expected. My acoustic imagination painted pictures of noisy, shredded, low-fi sample rage as the formerly titled CASSANDRA DATAKILL stirred quite some commotion in the breakcore scene. Instead, you get wickedly phat, slickly produced breakbeat tracks...
Electronic Music World: Paradise / Brazilian...
Before this album, I only knew Cdatakill from the split 12″ with Minion on Eupholus and a few seperate tracks I heard. My main idea of Cdatakill’s music therefore was that it was quite breakcore-ish. This album completely proved me wrong. Paradise does have it’s influences of breakcore, but combines that in an awesome way with very melodic elements, beautiful atmospheric spheres, and a variation...
Recycle Your Ears: Brazilian Nightmare
The american project Cdatakill is going to surprise many listener with this Brazilian nightmare, an item that sees Zak Roberts steps out from both the 12″ format and the rhythmic, breakcore-ish style of his past release. This CDR album is a collection of atmospheric and mostly arhythmic material, which features 9 new tracks, three that had already been released somewhere else, and one, Eating,...