blastah - closer

● [SWINE PREMIERE] ● Los Angeles-based electronic music duo @xenmodel is releasing their new EP via Montreal-based label @causalchainclub (March 3rd)

➽ "Timesaver" is the name of the Xen Model’s third full-length album and second release on Causal Chain. The 9-track LP stays true to the duo’s eccentric sound while delving into the introspective side of their productions.

➽ "The track „Controller“ stood out the most from the project for me. It is hard to describe with words, but maybe the term „Braindance“ (imagine artists like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, Boards of Canada, μ-Ziq) captures the mood of the music accurately. It's like a living organic-electronic-hybrid thing, something between a modular synthesizer, a liquid alien-like creature, and a plant all in one."

READ MORE in the article ➽ https://swinedaily.com/premiere-xen-model/

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Swine Daily
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Timesaver

[Swine Premiere] Xen Model - "Controller" (Causal Chain)

@jjjacob @hlodowigekdahl
The 42nd release of katharsis is the collaborative album “Soft Space” by label founder jjjacob and various other artists from around the world, coming out on May 31st. The album works as a sequel to his previous full-length release "Brutal Nature" from 2022, both in terms of the collaborational dogma in production but also in the thematic connection and contrast between the brutality of nature and the softness of space. All tracks emerged as infantile jjjacob sketches, then taking more form and gaining inspirational matter from the collaborating artists' conduct and care, before finally being concluded by the final touches of jjjacob again.

The result is as the title suggests smooth and gentle at most times, but it does though have more wicked and harsh moments and aspects throughout the album. The emotional journey of the album keeps pendulating between the pleasant floating sensations of celestial emptiness and the brute mysticality of the unknown. At times it feels aerodynamic or dissolving, at others it tastes crispy and anthemic, but the overall output is definitely ethereal and cosmic.

releases May 31, 2024
artwork & mastering by jjjacob

Soft Space

Late Laments (feat. Hlodowig Ekdahl)

jjjacob & Hlodowig Ekdahl - Late Laments

@starleaf
The 44th release of katharsis is the debut album “Late Bloomer” by the malmö-based entity Starleaf. A whisper caught between interstellar winds, a tale of a cosmic protagonist - something growing, something distant and near at once. The album manifests the ethereal spirit of Starleaf with deep rhythmic pulses of bass sprouting from the deep, strong melodic forces of trancey synths and hard-hitting space-warping percussion.

Starleaf is an organism thriving on the edge of the comprehensible, drawing from energies that defy the natural laws we claim to know. In its branches, rhythms weave, harmonic growth pulses, and textures bloom from the nexus of the organic and the alien. Its origins are a paradox of seed and starlight, where sound becomes a tendril, twisting through Malmö’s underground and far beyond.

Artwork by jjjacob
Mastering by jjjacob & Starleaf

Late Bloomer

Jester (feat. Gina040)

Starleaf - Jester feat. Gina040

Three years after their debut album ‘When My Darkness Came To Light’, Exploited Body has returned with their new album ‘Here, I Abandon’.

‘Here, I Abandon’ marks a new beginning, documenting the grievous first steps on the path of healing. The title references reaching a point, where all that doesn’t serve oneself must be left behind. The record is an exercise in “noise pop”, featuring prominent vocals from Exploited Body while combining their signature blistering distortion with their love of catchy melodies.

The album opens with ‘Only Your Eyes Could See My Wings’, a fragile and minimal ballad dedicated to their partner, who helped them find their way out of their pain-shrouded mind. Emerging from the fog, echoing vocals and thunderous piano drones lead into the disarmingly vulnerable vocal passage, the most personal song Exploited Body has ever shared with the world. ‘Demon Of Hatred’ is a slow-burning mantra about ending the cycle of trauma that began long ago, that manifests itself as a rage-filled beast. The screeching metal and cavernous bells collide under the somber vocals until it’s all ripped to shreds by violent pillars of noise. ‘After All (In The Ruins Of Limerence)’ deals with losing oneself in another person and awakening from the fever dream that is limerence. Along with the swinging vocal melodies, the dissonant mechanical humming break out into an onslaught of distorted kick drums before dissolving into harmonic bliss.

‘Replacing A Scar With Another’ explores themes of self-sabotage and self-harm, how we often reject help that is offered to us, creating new wounds to tend to instead of mending the old ones and trading old harmful beliefs into new even more detrimental ones (“replacing a god with another”). ’Self-Surrender’ is about shame, self-deception, requesting others to ‘hold your light’ until the sun’s out while you wallow in the dark abyss of self-pity, but now the time to has come to face yourself. The ethereal production paired with a delicate melody is reminiscent of a haunting lullaby with ghostly voices creaking in the midst of ringing synths, before everything comes to a head for a disjointed crescendo.’ Abandon’ is the purge that marks the point of no return, stripping off your weakness piece by piece, like an exorcism through the brutal wall of noise that the song builds up to. The closing track ‘Tear Me Apart Until All That’s Left Is Love’ is the bittersweet moment of letting yourself disintegrate and splinter into pieces to make room for what lies at the core of it all. A soft landing back into your body, before the colossal aftershock kicks in and sends you on your way to what comes next.

The album is written, produced, mixed and mastered by Nori Kin and features artwork by Changeless-affiliated Helsinki-based photographer Markus Watkins & Nori Kin.

Here, I Abandon

Exploited Body - Replacing A Scar With Another

What happens when dubby drum & bass meets Dischord’s post-punk colossus Black Eyes? “Break” is the new EP from NY’s Relaxer, the long running alias of Daniel Martin-McCormick (Black Eyes, Ital and co-founder of Dripping), and it signals a decisive shift in his music.

Prompted by friends to write a drum & bass live set just as Black Eyes was reuniting, the results didn’t quite fit the d&b genre. But it felt right. Quick, nimble, with room for the ferocity of his favorite post punk and some of the spaciousness of dub. Evergreen vibes, really, but seen from a fresh perspective.

Honed over a period of two years, the five tracks on “Break” fuse Relaxer’s careening, technoid sounds with free jazz-tinted drum programming, snarling sound design and spacious echo trails. It’s a perfect fit for 29 Speedway’s future-facing, exploratory anti-genre approach to electronics. The tape features two remixes by the singular DJ Marcelle and mastering by Dubplates & Mastering. Daniel tells his side of the story below:

“Two years ago my friends who run the drum ‘n’ bass party Headznite asked me to write a live set for a Ukraine fundraiser they were putting on. Right at the same time, my punk band Black Eyes was having our first practices in 20 years, which meant I was re-training my body to scream at top volume and high registers and to lay into my guitar at full force. In those same months, Dripping was forming and ideas were flying for crazy, boundary-pushing lineups. I had just finished writing the meditative composition suite “In Softening Air” and was feeling the call; it was time to let it rip.

Everything poured into that live set for Headznite, and a new style was born. Relaxer had begun as a decisively techno project, but pushing the BPMs and working in drum breaks tweaked the formula enough to cut any lingering ties with that ethos.

Over the next two years I kept on it, writing more, recording, pushing the technique and exploring the sound. “Break” is the first time any of this work has been made public. Sometimes a detour can hack your brain. My first dance 12” as Ital was supposed to be a one-off side project to my punk band and it ended up taking over my life. Now punk music is calling asking for the debt to be repaid. Fuck it.”

Written & recorded by Daniel Martin-McCormick, 2022-2024.
Mixed by Daniel Martin-McCormick & Sol León, with assistance from Sphente Shepherd.
Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering.
Art & design by Brian Mark.
Thanks to Headznite for the prompt.

２大悲 Great Compassion

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