Independent DIY electronic music label based in Dubai, UAE.

booking: michelle@potnia-theron.de

@ceasetwoexist
@2anba2

Caught at the threshold of overlapping worlds, memories, and autonomic forces, Van Boom conducts a critical artistic enterprise from his base in Kuwait. As a producer, DJ, and organizer embedded in the Arab states along the Gulf Region, Van Boom is a rare voice in a burgeoning underground music scene as unparalleled as it is pressured by social and state mechanisms.

Van Boom is by his own admission a terminal outsider. His penchant for eviscerating strains of future-cut dance state as much. Inhibited by the obligation to limit self-expression and artistic activity due to the top-down restrictions local to the region, his work questions what is forbidden and what is binary in an uncompromising context. Despairing grievances demand abrasive sonics, and Van Boom does not deliver less, though a self-reflective edge accompanies every extreme. Grappling with censorship and raging towards the state, Van Boom's sharp and metamorphosing music cathartically seeks kinship through depersonalised ciphers born of necessity.

His dread-laced hyper-industrial wares were first unleashed on the EP 'frown.' in 2019, however the following year's 'MORFEUS' EP for London's ANBA label was what sparked urgent attention. Van Boom has since featured on a number of shows on NTS Radio as well as being tapped for Boiler Room's Hard Dance mix series, and his collaboration with Slikback only heightened anticipation for further transmissions from the Gulf. Van Boom's visual output has also gained traction, with the product of an apparel collaboration with Bedouin Records finding support from ACRONYM 's Errolson Hugh. 

His debut album,  'Prosthetics', found a fitting home on Varg²™'s Cease 2 Exist label. 'Prosthetics' manifests the heady frustrations and tradition-tempered strains into a demonic cacophony of distorted rapture. Moments of introspection blur the ascent, balancing the sheer release with a self-conscious outsider's sentiment. A batch of remixes from a tight selection of vital producers accompany the album. With the breakthrough of 'Prosthetics,' Van Boom has received much critical praise, with Resident Advisor deeming his single ‘KAFIR’ as one of the Best Electronic Music releases of 2023. This surge of support culminated in his highly anticipated live performance debut at Berghain during the 2023 CTM Festival. Moreover, Mixmag has recognized Van Boom as one of the Top 25 artists to watch in 2024.

Encoded into the giddy fragmentation and acidic crescendos of Van Boom's work is a deep meditation of the meaning of difference and disobedience in very real circumstances.

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