After an annum of repose, London-based and industrial-clique-doted Depth.Request offers to consideration what's promised to be the first volume in a series titled Hostile Responses & Provocations. Boasting an international lineup, this post-punk, EBM-leaning VA release revolves predominantly at a pace of 135 BPM and features occasional outbursts of indiscernibly distorted lyrics throughout its six rough-hewed, distinctly industrial cuts.

Setting a brooding but aptly instigating tone, No.Ba's opener Bourbon Drive rolls out with unhastily tumbling percs, widely mounting pads and grungy bass cast behind roaring outcries of a rather aggravated vocalist.

Positing that Hate's A Loaded Gun, Istigkeit then continues by elevating velocity, hardening its relentless kicks and violating the rest of the spectrum with walls of sandy hats and whooshes occasionally intersected with looped utterances.

Cranking the cacophony handle to eleven in his wildly syncopated Shug that creates sense of participating in a DIY rave taking place at the base of an erupting volcano, War Scenes programs the drums to run at a double time next to speeding open hats and a condensed, pressurizing sub level.

As last days of s.e.x.'s-fathered and Espectra Negra-featured Phallic Mother starts off, one could be forgiven for thinking that a record with sirens of the apocalypse have been put under the needle of God's antique doomsday gramophone; breathing room is nowhere be found on this anarchic monstrosity on an aural beatdown where screeching and screaming combat to outperform the relentless drumline in gain.

The plate's penultimate suggestion Never Be Silent sees NX1 participant Samot coming well to his own through the use of quartertime-turning-halftime kicks, dirty bass sheets, eerily exhaling stabs, elongated shrills and other percussive arrangements forged seemingly of sheer noise conditioned to occupy higher ranges.

Closing on a comparatively restrained, stealthy crawler DXS, Blasted lastly showcases his knack for conjuring contemplative sound environments where UK bass can flirt with techno and percussive elements of non-overlapping positions are given equal footing in terms of establishing rhythms and carrying the sonic narrative forward without a need for restraint to permanent patterns of behavior.

- rhetor, Aivazovsky Waves

1. No.Ba - Bourbon Drive
2. Istigkeit - Hate's A Loaded Gun
3. War Scenes - Shug
4. last days of sex - Phallic Mother (feat Especta Negra) 
5. Samot - Never Be Silent
6. Blasted - DXS

Mastered by Alain Paul
Artwork by Tolga Tres
P&C 2020 Depth.Request

Format : digital
Release Date : 30-09-20

DRV001 - Various Artists - Hostile Responses & Provocations Vol. 1 - Preview

Industrial-grade sonic wares out of the old country's capital. Limited edition 12" vinyl & digital series.