Hypna (Insert) and J-Shadow (Keysound, Sneaker Social Club) team up to drop their first ever collaborative EP, A2I (Access To Infinity). The work, a blistering 5-track odyssey, moves at hyper-speed through fragments of footwork, jungle, ambient and sci-fi sound design. Designed to please both listeners at home and ravers listening on club systems, the EP shows off the high-tech, low-end focused sound the two producers have been developing respectively. 

A2I is a long time in the making - J and Hypna affectionately refer to each other as their “musical other”. Their relationship goes all the way back to 2018, when they hit each other up with a love for one another’s music. The more they talked, the more they realised they had a shared obsession with sci-fi movies & video games - at that point writing music together was an inevitability. Their aim for the EP was to explore new patterns and tempos, while blending all of their influences together into a shared universe. 

The sci-fi influence is evident from the opening seconds of ‘Access To Infinity’, as a sustained drone gradually invites the listener inside the producers’ shared universe. Gradual flecks of glitched particles form, before things coalesce into a climax of weightless bass pulses and skittering hi-hats, reminiscent of Logos and Mumdance’s post-grime explorations. 

‘Incubate’ plunges us down into underwater spaces before kicking things off with a spaced-out drum workout demonstrating both Hypna and J-Shadow’s uncanny knack for making hard-hitting, yet atmospheric club music. 

‘Automata’ comes in next, opening with isolated granulated metallic textures - a stark contrast to its predecessors. Throwing the listener out of the airlock, it launches into a frantic half time beat defined by stark synth stabs and basses which sound like the aftershock of a futuristic space craft. 

‘Motherboard’ pulls us into the deep centre of A2I’s universe, a weightless soundscape of Reese basses and regal arpeggiated synth sequences. 

Finishing up the release is ‘Force Lens’. Drums warp into existence, coming into focus and building in intensity before dropping into a sequence of laser-sharp breakbeats and bass pulses. Somehow J-Shadow and Hypna still manage to imbue space into this tune, with synth alarms creeping in and introducing a much more introspective second section. A floating pad gradually oozes into existence, keeping us locked through the final few minutes of this highly immersive universe. 

What draws A2I together is a prioritisation of space and atmosphere above all else. These are club tracks, yes, guaranteed to turn heads, yes, but not in the conventional sense - it’s as if Hypna and J-Shadow have rewritten the rules for what constitutes club music, challenging and re-inventing the boundaries to suit the needs of their universe.

Access To Infinity

HYPNA & J-SHADOW - Access To Infinity

Familiar Rift

NIQH - Reson Extraspand

NIQH - And Then It Became Inverted

First track off the new Plasma Sources EP by @niqhniqhniqh - Familiar Rift.

NIQH - Familiar Rift Theme

Plasma Sources is proud to present nosync’s Soundsystem Music, an EP which provides a fresh perspective on the high-fidelity and sci-fi influenced electronic music the imprint is known for.  

nosync’s (https://soundcloud.com/user-775234683) work sits in a truly unique space in the sound system/club music-o-sphere. This in large part is due to his heavy deployment of progressive metal instrumentation, from chugging walls of overdriven guitars to relentless double-time kick patterns. On paper, utilising this palette in a club-music context may seem like an impossible task. However, where others might see a chasm of disparity, nosync has deftly identified the bridge connecting these two genres, seeing in these two landscapes the same desired emotional state - despite the different methodologies used to achieve this.  

“This record attempts to make the case that the essence of what makes these sounds so obsessively loved are one and the same. Gripping dramatism and intensity are the overlapping themes that I have attempted to bring out here, through the record’s sound design and film-like structure.” 

Indeed Soundsystem Music as a whole feels wildly cinematic and is as much an exercise in atmosphere creation as music for sound systems, with nosync citing the video game Dead Space and its sequel as key influences for this body of work. From the claustrophobic, elasticated wind chamber of ‘Traced’ to the broken choir voices and FiS-esque ambient abyss of ‘Dead Land’, nosync has expertly matched the pace and atmosphere of these hugely iconic and utterly terrifying video games and channeled them into a purely sonic experience.  

The metal influences nosync brings to the table slice through the entire corpus of Soundsystem Music, although the linkage is perhaps at its most clear on ‘Airlock’, which features a full-on death-metal guitar chugging through the first half. In perhaps the most surprising switch-up of the entire EP, things suddenly twist into a guttural underwater club track a third of the way through.  

nosync’s love for the vast ecosystem of club/soundsystem music also comes through loud and clear on this release, from the grime-inflected leads and hyper-detailed polyrhythmic noise workouts of ‘Unregistered Hypercam’ to the reverberated metal clangs of ‘Kauket’s Arena’ which feels like witch-house on steroids - the soundtrack to some final boss battle with some type of nightmare-demon-entity.  

nosync has achieved something unique with Soundsystem Music. By drawing together a hugely disparate corpus of influences and pummelling them into a noise-fuelled apocalyptic aberration, he has created a sound which feels consistent, fully his own, and in many places, utterly dread-inducing. 
credits
releases February 13, 2024 

Written, Produced & Mixed by Nikolas Babić 
Mastered by Hypna 
Artwork by Joh000 // Jose Hernández 


© & ℗ 2023 Plasma Sources.

Soundsystem Music

nosync - Aberrations

nosync - Dead Land

nosync - Kauket's Arena

https://plasmasources.bandcamp.com/album/project-researcher

Hot on the heels of nosync’s ‘Soundsystem Music’, Plasma Sources is proud to present Beton Brut’s ‘Project Researcher’, a 4-track offering of no nonsense, dancefloor-ready electronics which take influence from experimental club music, grime and musique concrète.

Having previously released standout EPs on CYTE Records, Beton Brut has built a reputation for delivering distinctively sparse and heavy-hitting productions which have garnered support from the likes of Mumdance, LCY and Walton. On ‘Project Researcher’, Beton Brut takes his sound and develops it even further. 

In the producer’s own words, the EP is “about materials - raw, straight and to the point”. This approach is evident from the opening track ‘Tom Machine’, as ASMR-inducing squelches are bottled inside an environment which bubbles with molecular detail, and pitted against clinically arranged percussion sequences. 

Up next, ’Lighter’ pulses with Beton Brut’s signature blend of grime-influenced bass-weight and snatches of pirate-radio MC chatter. ‘EMCA’ doubles down on this approach, with a more identifiable rhythm sure to keep heads bouncing at peak time. 

‘LSTS’ rounds things off with an approach to bass programming which feels like listening to a biological entity undergoing a process of evolution and regression. The palette feels viscous and shifting here, with abstracted percussion and gunshots populating this sparse environment. 

As an EP, ‘Project Researcher’ feels like the auditory equivalent of observing a chemical process inside a petri-dish. Beton Brut sets himself up as a scientist on this release, meticulously collecting individual samples from the deep corners of YouTube, introducing these into abstracted environments and observing the reaction. 

Releases May 13, 2024 

Written, Produced & Mixed by Zach Buckley 
Mastered by HYPNA 
Artwork by Joh000 // Jose Hernández

Project Researcher

LSTS

Beton Brut - LSTS

https://plasmasources.bandcamp.com/album/project-researcher

Hot on the heels of nosync’s ‘Soundsystem Music’, Plasma Sources is proud to present @betonbrutt ‘Project Researcher’, a 4-track offering of no nonsense, dancefloor-ready electronics which take influence from experimental club music, grime and musique concrète.

Having previously released standout EPs on CYTE Records, Beton Brut has built a reputation for delivering distinctively sparse and heavy-hitting productions which have garnered support from the likes of Mumdance, LCY and Walton. On ‘Project Researcher’, Beton Brut takes his sound and develops it even further.

In the producer’s own words, the EP is “about materials - raw, straight and to the point”. This approach is evident from the opening track ‘Tom Machine’, as ASMR-inducing squelches are bottled inside an environment which bubbles with molecular detail, and pitted against clinically arranged percussion sequences.

Up next, ’Lighter’ pulses with Beton Brut’s signature blend of grime-influenced bass-weight and snatches of pirate-radio MC chatter. ‘EMCA’ doubles down on this approach, with a more identifiable rhythm sure to keep heads bouncing at peak time.

‘LSTS’ rounds things off with an approach to bass programming which feels like listening to a biological entity undergoing a process of evolution and regression. The palette feels viscous and shifting here, with abstracted percussion and gunshots populating this sparse environment.

As an EP, ‘Project Researcher’ feels like the auditory equivalent of observing a chemical process inside a petri-dish. Beton Brut sets himself up as a scientist on this release, meticulously collecting individual samples from the deep corners of YouTube, introducing these into abstracted environments and observing the reaction.

Releases May 13, 2024

Written, Produced & Mixed by Zach Buckley 
Mastered by HYPNA 
Artwork by Joh000 // Jose Hernández

Beton Brut - Tom Machine

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