You Are The One / Let's Do It

You Are The One

Twisting junglisms into irregular shapes since 2017, Manchester’s pride and joy Alex Lowther-Harris brings Thugwidow to Sneaker Social for a ruff yet refreshing ride through the rave. No doubt his skin in the game reaches back further than his first recorded output, but just trying to get a handle on his released catalogue is work enough. In 2019 alone he released no less than six albums and three EPs, laying down immense slabs of material on tapes as much as wax. As well as coursing through the dense undergrowth of the cassette scene, his 12”s have appeared on labels like Western Lore, Warehouse Rave and Astral Black, and he’s collaborated with Dead Man’s Chest and Bruised Skies.

Make no mistake, this is hardcore-rooted music, but it feels closer in spirit to that ill-defined period before scenes became delineated and tribal. All the ingredients are there, but Lowther-Harris teases them, fires them off at funny angles or flips them on their head. ‘Post Modern Assault Ethics’ maintains a sparse, restrained demeanour throughout even as the diva vocal slices ping endlessly through the mix and the bass wobbles away underneath. ‘Invisible Shell Of Energy’ juggles lesser-spotted breaks through a cloud of downcast pads, only to trip over and open the filter up on the loose and funky bassline at the final stretch. ‘The Sacrifice’ turns the break damage up, but keeps the moody vibe front and centre, and ‘The Voices Beneath The Earth’ wraps things up with a heavy-hearted belter that runs the risk of achieving anthemic status. 

For all the snappy programming, crisp edits and artful low end, it’s the pervading sense of emotional depth which makes Thugwidow such a powerful presence in the contemporary jungle scene. Pairing those all-consuming moods with his non-standard structures, you’ve got exactly the kind of renegade we love to carry here at Sneaker.

THUGWIDOW - Invisible Shell Of Energy

Pete Cannon & Tim Reaper - You're The One

Cavestar & Moore - Say The Word

Cheff The Boy - Ways Of The Underground

First single from the forthcoming EP;

T5UMUT5UMU - 玄 Gen
SNKRX014 // 21st June 2024

Pre-order Vinyl: https://bit.ly/SNKRX014
(Limited to 100 copies)

Beaming in from Tokyo with the kind of deadly new bass configurations to fully shut down a dance, Sneaker Social Club are very proud to present a five-strong shockout from T5UMUT5UMU.

You might have caught the breakthrough producer bringing their wayward signals to Hakuna Kuala for their debut 12” Sea Of Trees, but a dive into their Bandcamp shows a prolific studio head turning out beats with laser focus and unstoppable flair. Messing with the physical essence of Gqom, Dubstep, Grime, Trap, abber and more besides, the T5UMUT5UMU sound flexes between styles to make up its own soundsystem language, and this new EP on Sneaker is the perfect demonstration.

Deadly square wave bass punching into the dead of night, granulated speech patterns and whipcrack drums, grimey flute stabs and dramatic percussive rolls all spill into the soup at various points and the mood remains heavy at all times, but it’s never morose. The drops are too fiery to keep your head down, and there’s space for more than just sullen sonics (check the rousing melodic refrains hovering over the tumbling taiko drums on ‘Ikusa’ and you’ll see what we mean).

This kind of inventive progression of the bass music idea is exactly what Sneaker is built on, and it’s our pleasure to bring it to your ears.

T5UMUT5UMU - 武者 Musha

Pre-order the EP here: sq.lnk.to/SNKR056

Out on Ltd 12" Vinyl on the 22nd November 2024

Pre-order

Christoph de Babalon - For Nothing

my contribution to 38c3's 30 minute sample challenge

h4ck3d (38c3)

Come Find Me

My remix of this legendary track by Future Primitive:
Out digitally on KFD (KFD17):
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/kniteforce-sampler-2017-digital

Future Primitive - We're Flying (TNO Remix) Clip

Rubadub [Sneaker Social Club]

In the immersive sonic-visual landscape of com:pute's (producer, DJ, VJ, interdisciplinary artist) bio-digital convergence, topics such as (???) are sonically mapped and visually rendered. Aural transmissions of data streams and neural whispers weave a tapestry of (???), as fragmented identities dissolve into the hum of the post digital collective. In their aural-visual odyssey, the boundaries between flesh and circuitry blur, creating dreamscapes of (???).

h4ck3d (38c3)

computational rhythmic devices