Having already unleashed a considerable amount of collaborative magic with the "Planetary Funk: 22 Light Years" series of remix EPs, Luke Slater has now upped the ante with six full sides' worth of material, all of them injecting the spirit of classic P.A.S. into new sonic organisms. Using motifs from past P.A.S. successes, Luke Slater and his cohorts join here to make something radical and revitalizing: too cohesive for a "compilation album" and with too much autonomy granted to the guest remixers to be a simple "tribute," this new LP is the boldest statement in the series yet. 

KSP's version of "Function 6" gradually builds a cyborg leitmotif from an overdriven martial beat and epileptic machine breakdowns - a fascinating audio case study of perfect discipline disintegrating into something rather unexpected.

The Light Years Reworks

Planetary Assault Systems - Function 6 (Kamikaze Space Programme Remix)

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.