Ortrotasce - "Seeing Red," a 2023 self-released single

Ortrotasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) is the moniker for minimalist-synth artist Nic Hamersly, who has been crafting his unique brand of dramatic darkwave for over a decade.

As he told the Orlando Weekly last year, as a teenager, he fell in love with experimental punk label 31G Records and its founder's band, The Locust, before moving on to bands like Coil and Throbbing Gristle. "I was more so into the harsher realm of electronic music," he tells the Weekly. "Power electronics and dark ambient and so on." He notes that his later influences leaned in poppier directions. "Hard Corps, SPK — Machine Age Voodoo, specifically — Fad Gadget, to name a few," he adds. "The juxtaposition between synth-pop and industrial in these groups just do it for me. You can probably hear this in most of my recent output."

Read the full story at KEXP.org