deconstructed club / halfstep / bass / hyperglitch / postindustrial hybrids

Taken from SBKT040: Yen Tech - Assembler

Release date: 28th May 2021

With Assembler, his second full-length album, Yen Tech re emerges in ecstatic and primordial new form -- a multi-layered and interwoven work that blends futuristic production, meta-science fiction, and anthropic critique into a dizzying array of next scenarios -- a maze-like vision of our technological and exponentially oracular, full-stack future.

This imagined future becomes a construct or place in itself; one in which the record buzzes and swarms; a mechanosphere of towering melodic vocal samples and sound design - all narrated by Yen Tech's unnerving, diaristic vocals - as he channels the form of post-human techno cretin, whispering hyperbolic ASMR to no one in particular. We follow this character from one disorienting experience to the next as he recites a stream of indecipherable neologisms and hyper-descriptives, the existential residue seeping from every line. In the end though, a strange, uneasy beauty comes into focus; the metamorphic lyrics and musical euphorias revealing Assembler as a type of elegy: a wet glass reflection of the failures of what we are and were - and a jubilant celebration of what we may become.

"I imagined Assembler as a type of self imposed simulation, an invisible boundary that the narrator has to navigate out of to move forward. It was a way of looking at how we may carry the issues and failures of the past with us into the future. The psychological baggage of history, the guilt of geotrauma, the addictive melange of technology all become dealt with in this stage of acceptance and recovery. I wrote the album with this in mind, a process to find the slimy pearl of who we are" - Yen Tech

All music and lyrics written by Yen Tech
Produced and arranged by Yen Tech
Vocals by Yen Tech
Additional vocals by Katy Townsend
Mastered by Raphael Valensi
Artwork and vinyl design by Johannes Schnatmann

Assembler

Yen Tech - Leech

Taken from SBKT049: Osheyack - Intimate Publics
Release date: 8th June 2022

Intimate Publics, Osheyack’s second album, is an homage to Shanghai, the city he has called home since 2012. Over the past ten years the producer has evolved from an avid club-goer to a key member of the vital soundscape that emerged from ALL Club and its predecessor, the now defunct club The Shelter. As hinted by the title, which draws on American social theorist Michael Warner’s work on publics and counterpublics, the album expresses a commitment to mining the utopian potential of club music, forging new worlds and generating future social relations, just as the artist bids farewell to the city at a moment of uncertain transition. While tracks like 'Edging' and 'Thrall' continue to present his signature collage of harder club music, the rest of the record reveals a shift to synthetic approximations of acoustic instruments. 'Still', the central track of the album, is a piece composed almost entirely of samples found on Vocaloid (a vocal synthesizer developed by Yamaha, commonly used to give voice to Japanese virtual idols). While echoing themes explored in previous projects, like the nature of realism and authenticity in a techno-mediated landscape, Intimate Publics is charged with an unexpected emotional candor and vulnerability, unveiling a personal side Osheyack is only beginning to explore.

Words by Alvin Li
Artwork by Xiaofei Qiu
Design by Luke Griffiths
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

Intimate Publics

Osheyack - Being Online

A sweltering entity pierces the veil of our atmosphere, a shimmering light echoes a warning of its arrival.

Exploited Body returns to Changeless with their earth-shattering two track EP. 'Collapsar' is a high-octane, howling, extraterrestrial banger caving in on itself, with its relentless drums and harrowing screeches clawing their way into the physical realm. 'Syrtis' is a deceptive slow-burner that halfway through the track reassembles itself in double-time through hyperactive breaks and disjointed rhythms.

’Collapsar / Syrtis’ will be released 11th November via Changeless.

Written, produced, mixed & mastered by Nori Kin.
Artwork by Jesse Draxler, Nori Kin & Samuli Vienola.

@exploitedbody

Collapsar / Syrtis

Exploited Body - Syrtis

Taken from SBKT054: Gorgonn - Six Paths
Release date: 31st January

Artwork and layout by Akihide Monna
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

In Japanese Buddhism, it's believed that when someone dies they are ushered down one of six paths depending on the karma accumulated during their previous lives. A being might end up in the world of humans, animals, demigods, or celestials, but it's also possible to end up reborn as a pitiable hungry ghost, doomed to an existence of insatiable desire, or even worse - be sent to hell, or jigoku. Ruled over by the Japanese lord of death Emma-ō, this hell isn't quite like the Christian hell, it's closer to purgatory, and cleansing the karma can take hundreds of millions of years of excruciating torture in extreme cold or immense fire. Japanese bass alchemist Gorgonn takes these themes as the basis of his debut album "Six Paths", assembling a spiritually weighty set of futurist dubs that consider the possibility that our mortal domain might be closer to hell than we realize.

Gorgonn describes himself as a Japalien exile. He left the country of his birth almost two decades ago, and since then has been working tirelessly to formulate Jamaican dub, noise, techno, and no-wave into a sound he calls "sci-fi steppas". If you've not come across his name before, there's a good chance you've heard his reverberations. An established sound tech who's worked with The Bug, Hype Williams, Seefeel and others, he's part of G36 with Kevin Martin, Dokkebi Q with Kiki Hitomi, and a former member of Devilman with DJ Scotch Egg and Bo Ningen's Taigen Kawabe. Just last year he released the acclaimed "Disentegration Dubs" full-length alongside JK Flesh, the veteran producer who's best known for masterminding Godflesh. All this experience blesses Gorgonn's productions with remarkable sonic force, and "Six Paths" is his most crushing display yet, smelting cannonball bass and osmium beats into sharp-edged soundsystem weapons.

Look no further than opener 'Abyss' for evidence of this: psychedelic synths draw the mind away from the mortal realm, while tangled, distorted beats push us back down to earth, our faces crushed into the grit and gravel. Using tweaked sub bass and unsettling drones, Gorgonn lays out a cinematic backdrop for the album, drawing us into a world that's terrifying, viscous, and nauseatingly familiar. There's a militaristic roll to 'Without Beginning and End', a track that juxtaposes spacey halfstep thrusts with death metal distortion, footwork polyrhythms, and unearthly pads that addresses the crushing endlessness of jigoku. On 'Invisible' meanwhile, Gorgonn torches the skeletal remains of D&B, abstracting familiar rhythmic patterns into fuzzy, ritualistic cycles that sound both ancient and humming with prospective technology. But on the closing track 'Life as a Beast', it sounds as if Gorgonn has come to a conclusion, and in a flurry of acid squelches and doomy foghorn bass blasts, he seems to have accepted that being reincarnated as an animal might be the best anyone can hope for. Who knows, you might end up as a cat.

Six Paths

Gorgonn - Invisible

KENEKI

Tomas Haake Meshuggah Bleed Drumcore edit (instr. version)

(115) HAAKE DRUM TOOL

https://lilatirandoavioleta.bandcamp.com/album/accelarated   

"All Day I Hear The Noise of Waters" a signature high tempo hot-blooded, percussion-heavy but slick touch, switching between rhythms and upping the energy on each switch.

@verraco - @sinmaldita - @lilatirandoavioleta

Hyperdub Records 2024

ACCELARATED

All Day I Hear The Noise Of Waters - Lila & SIn Maldita (Verraco Remix)

dru-1 - tabanca [YGK024]

1. cocoapayol
2. swing at the king
3. iere
4. alyuh cyah talk to me

Format: Digital/EP
Release Date: 19 July, 2024
Percussionists: Marta Rosa & Luca Giacobbe 
Mixed by Drew Lovett 
Cover by Natalia Podgorska
Mastered by Soda Plains

dru-1 - cocoapayol [YGK024]

Plasma Sources marks its 5th release with Cortical’s debut EP, Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes. Pulling from both the extreme fringes of experimental music and the minimalistic tendencies of the UK bass continuum, the duo’s much-awaited first release acts as the locus point between dance floor sensibility and sonic exploration in its most immersive, visceral sense. 

Cortical are world builders first and foremost. With backgrounds rooted as much in the visual arts as audio, the duo’s live AV show has already garnered critical acclaim after standout performances at Sonár and Lunchmeat. Coupling this with their list of past collaborators - which includes the likes of Holly Herndon, Arca and Skrillex - and it becomes easy to see why there’s so much hype around Cortical right now. Indeed, this EP is the culmination of months of building excitement amongst those in the know, as fragments of raw footage captured from Cortical’s shows begin to amass on social media. 

Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes itself feels like the auditory equivalent of a fragmentary existence forming, fragmenting and reforming again. Noise and distortion act as integral threads throughout the EP, but on Telúrica, they takes centre stage. Brittle percussive calls give way to a thick wall of bass-laden, cinematic viscerality which hits the listener almost as hard as the ensuing rhythmic carnage which erupts halfway through. 
Mortar, immediately fires away into more rhythmic madness, as elements of dubstep, metal and grime coalesce into blasted kick patterns which sound like the contractions of an eldritch machine’s digestive tract. Noise-tainted bass tones take over, tearing in and out of reality as Mortar progresses into deeper territory.

Up next, Shiny Surgery provides a respite, with electro-tinged drippings of lasers and wet gloops lifting the listener into a more sanitised and lighter space than its predecessors. Cortical’s extreme musical influences are still at play here with their signature eroded bass weight and splintered percussion on display, but in a more restrained sense. As the halfway point comes in, so too does the most introspective section of Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes, as cinematic floating pads de-sterilise the space. 

Finishing things up is the namesake of the EP and arguably the most anthemetic listen of the release. Demented vocal chants call out across a disintegrating claustrophobic space, before grime kicks and fragmented breakbeat loops explode into existence, demanding full dance floor attention.

Cortical - Mortar

Precious Metals Vol.1 is the inaugural compilation from Precious Metals, a label, radio show, and club night.

Since its debut as a radio show on London’s NTS in 2012, Precious Metals has been committed to showcasing  the outer reaches of experimental club music, both locally and globally. Under the direction of DJ and producer Endgame—emerging from South London’s pioneering club collectives Bala Club and Endless. The platform has been focused on capturing the organic cross-pollination of sounds from the inner-city and the sublime chaos of the present moment.

In 2020, Precious Metals evolved into a full-fledged label, seeking to unearth artists that are visionaries on their own terms, eschewing conventional genre limitations. Representing an international roster of uncompromising, iconoclastic artists both established and emerging. Bringing an emotionally charged vulnerability to club culture.

The compilation encapsulates this ethos, and ambition, the culmination of the past 12 years of endeavour. Featuring some of the legends and emerging stars of electronic music.

United in compassion and solidarity for the Palestinian cause and its ongoing humanitarian crisis, all proceeds from the album will be donated to support efforts toward humanitarian aid in Gaza, and Palestinian emancipation.

International Fundraiser: 
The People Stand with Gaza
Donate here

Imaabs - MurMur Time

We Control the Ground

Broken Circuits

1.

First track for the series 'Auto track playlist' free to download tracks made by me and the machines o've got in my room

The Car won't stop turning

Tracklist: 
1. LEECH HUT
2. EXIT WOUND
3. BACK ALLEY SECT
4. FEMUR

Check out our patreon! 
http://www.patreon.com/sidechains

Follow Ship Sket:
http://www.soundcloud.com/hdmurder
http://www.twitter.com/vaginagoggles
http://www.instagram.com/pilly_willy69

Follow Sidechains:
http://www.instagram.com/sidechainsclub
http://www.twitter.com/sidechainsclub
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DOWNLOAD

Ship Sket - BACK ALLEY SECT

Taken from SBKT024: Mun Sing - Scissor

Mastered by Raphael Valensi
Release date: 14th December 2018

For the final release of 2018, SVBKVLT are excited to announce the new EP from Mun Sing, the juddering solo project of Giant Swan‘s Harry Wright. 3 original tracks + remixes from Flora Yin-Wong and Osheyack

Mun Sing’s uncompromising ingenuity of sonic weaponry explores bone rattling, fragmented cyber grime and radioactive trap templates. An attack of fluctuating polyrhythms that pan from left to right creating a delirious effect. Amplified dissonant noise. Syncopated and visceral neo-EBM drum patterns that disintegrate, dissolve and accelerate then starkly shrink with an adrenaline fuelled industrial intensity.

Mun Sing is Wright’s tool to challenge the conventions and aesthetics of modern day club culture. To experiment with ideas of inclusivity and positivity, influenced by mainstream pop music by injecting pop’s marketing methods into the more serious, austere club world. Dance routines, obnoxious visuals and brash costumes all feature in the live show, where Mun Sing uses these elements as a means to highlight inclusivity, movement and fun.

@munsing
@giantswan

Scissor

Mun Sing - Fantasy OD

Taken from SBKT037: Hyph11E - Aperture
2 x LP / Digital - October 16th 2020

Artwork by Wang Newone
Mixed by Raphael Valensi
Mastered by Miles Whittaker
Text by megakira✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

Aperture is the debut album from Hyph11E.

Holes are ontologically parasitic - they are always within something else and cannot exist in isolation. Holes accompany us throughout our lives, dilative and devoured, fillable but indispensable. On one hand, they are the driven force for evolution, on the other hand, holes are also the layer of scab that signals growth. Without tearing, cutting and gluing, we cannot create or eliminate a hole. Topologists use the number of holes to distinguish geometric objects. In the same method, in the closed circuit of Encrust and Erosion, we became idiographic individuals.

In her new album, Hyph11E guides the light to travel within and through the hole, and it becomes Aperture.

Aperture

Hyph11E - Doppelgänger

Music lover & collector. Art, technology, design and fashion fan, futurist.

bookings: brandon@lb-agency.net
inquiries: slikback.management@gmail.com

KENEKI

slikback

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