heard truncate play this in chicago the other weekend. so sick!

Luke Slater’s Mote-Evolver reach the big 4-0 with the help of Chris Jarman, the commanding officer behind the Kamikaze Space Programme. Looking to redefine the concept of uncompromising from bass culture’s traditional Bristol HQ, ‘Concrete Musique’ is four tracks of loud, hard-nosed, techno-taunting speaker pressure.

Both ‘The Bailiff’ and ‘Network Rail’ power off boxy kick drums: such is their statement of intimidation, not much else is needed to accompany this campaign of haymaking through the arena.With percussion veering between tub-thumping and machine gunned tribalism, the pair set about a session of straight up and down ear-bashing. ‘The Bailiff’ carries the thinnest and daintiest of supernatural airs, while ‘Network Rail’ and its spearing loops demand to be housed in a hangar reaching breaking point.

Dancing on the live rail and taking a buzzsaw to its bottom end is the blackened electro breakbeat of ‘Radio’, laying down body-popping lino before the techno undertone turns it into a bed of nails. KSP’s palette is again sparse, watching the sparks fly while cowbells ring in the distance, making a date with the Deathstar for all poppers and lockers brave enough to face its wrath.

‘Death to the Valley’ is a versatile beast. Thanks to its explosive bass foundation, it can be found sweeping grime and trap before it, hanging out in the deepest techno recesses, and stomping its breakbeat feet. Another seethingly bare backdrop, punctuated by lab squiggles and signals vainly trying to keep a leash on the marauder it has let loose, means you should wear protection: contents are white hot.

Network Rail (MOTE40)

If there’s an artist to successfully traverse the treacherous divide between drum and bass, breakbeat and techno it’s Christopher Jarman’s prevailing alias, Kamikaze Space Programme. With roots indebted to the music he released on labels like Renegade Hardware under his Raiden alias, his abstract, field recorded, industrial and broken admission into the annals of electronica has seen his music backed, supported and released by the heaviest of renowned labels - namely Luke Slater's Mote Evolver, Mord to Osiris Music, Mord and Mote Evolver, WNCL, to the freshly minted Eomac’s Eotrax and further afield on Trust via Kamikaze Space Programme’s electro-minded wares. 

Having proved himself a razor-sharp edge of meticulous drum and bass production when rising up through the ranks of the genre’s definitive platforms, Kamikaze Space Programme’s hybrid sound, has joined the dots through a constellation of labels inhibiting a grey zone between UK club music and steely brutalist industrial textures. 

An accomplished session musician and avid field recording artist, Jarman’s music by and large is made up of foley sound design and sonic experimentation using bespoke apparatus and homemade microphones. Capturing internal resonances and electromagnetic radiation of objects, re-amplified or organic, classic hardware dub mixing completes the Kamikaze Space Programme aesthetic. Having worked with BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Rotterdam’s Re:Vive initiative too, there’s no denying Jarman of his credentials, with his repute as a formidable DJ and live act backed by his place in heavy weight line ups across the globe, be they at Berghain, Kompass Klub or Dommune to performing at festivals like Atonal, Krake and Kiev’s Next Sound.

Other collaborative projects, furthermore, have found their way through Simon Shreeve (aka Mønic, of Downwards and Kryptic Minds fame) to his Osiris Musik collaboration with Adam Winchester (Appleblips) under the moniker, Dot Product. He’s also proved a deft hand in the remix by taking on productions by Planetary Assault Systems, Emika and The Exaltics to NY’s The Horrorist.

Encompassing the most brutal of industrial sound design alongside intrinsic field recordings and the sleeker, low tempos and frenetic energy of jungle, breakbeats and drum and bass, Jarman’s ability to maneuver between genre and style sees the music of Kamikaze Space Programme defy classification while spiralling from one nether-spectrum of sound to the next.

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