@cupocupo - Armor EP
[PAYNOMINDTOUS, PNMTU004, out Dec. 3rd, 2021]

CupoCupo is a duo of musicians hailing from Bergamo, Italy, presenting their second work after the debut ‘Hypermetabolism’ EP out earlier this year on the US label @wearetar. Coming with an album cover by the Italian visual artist eurasiandesert [https://instagram.com/eurasiandesert/] and an official two-sided A5 300 gr. cardboard artwork print, the 4-tracker release is a coherent, eventful episode of knife-edge post-club hybridization, a treasury of outstanding sound design skills, vicious bass handling, and rhythmical obsessivity.

The centerpiece of their work is extensive vocal manipulation, employing voice chops with the role of primary composition tools within the multi-faceted pieces rich in heavy kick drums, snappy percussions, and gurgling vibrations. Drawing influence from contemporary electronic genres as well as free-form experimental music, the EP is closed by a trancey, grandiose rework of the opening track Yerro curated by the influential artist @galentipton (she/they), and a somber, pitch-black remix by Italian-based composer and producer @shevsmachine (she/her).

With ‘Armor’, CupoCupo hand out explosions of shattered sounds cramming themselves in turbulent flows of energy, where self-perception is challenged, strength is tested, and certainties are dismantled. Sealed lips utter red-hot rants oscillating from burning outbursts of chaos to sudden clarity. Tragic voices sing penetrating ballads for wandering bodies, waiting for their destiny to manifest and vehemently start opposing it. Light comes with darkness, and anything can be worth struggling for. CupoCupo’s outings are nothing but heartfelt testimony that brighter times are yet to come. Or not. 

01-04: Produced and mixed by CupoCupo. 05-06 remixed by Galent Tipton and SHE/MACHINE, respectively. Mastering by @wimdehaen. Artwork and flyer design by eurasiandesert.

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@shevsmachine is a human producer from Italy creating romantic synthetic scores with the help of computers and artificial intelligence. Her style is characterized by lo-fi IDM. Her official debut EP, Ritual, is out for Ghost City Collective. She has made various collaborations during the years with Antistandard Records, Soul Feeder, Sostanze Records, Biodiversità Records. She is part of the music collective VBRA and, since 2020, she is curating a podcast series on No Joke Radio titled OTHER VOICES. EXTRA: Ritual is a 4-tracks journey through machine meditation. An alliance between cyberpunk futuristic technology and the warm imperfections of lo-fi soundscapes created by humans.

Armor

Pay-what-you-want DL

CupoCupo - Lava Lips (S H E / M A C H I N E Remix)

luft

Reforged. Reimagined. Elements tamed and wielded. Distilled frequencies sent back through to the world. Re-focused and reconstructed. A transmutation of will, etched to disc. The long journey’s end. A signal sent between worlds and back again, a vision realized and now, delivered.

Original EP: plaieboi.bandcamp.com/album/things-u-wanna-do

Original music by Plaieboi (@plaieboi)
Remix by Xl.iks (@xliks)
Mastered by SIM
Album cover by Bruno Lauzon Tanzi
Character illustration by Sora Park

Plaieboi - Shoot Me (Xl.iks Remix)

ELIAS - 161222118112

Heli (demo)

sysadmin - Morphallaxis

ENDLESS RETURN IN RETROGRADE: THE RAPID UNCANCELLATION OF THE FUTURE by personalbrand - 26/12/2022

chopper - rites

Taken from SBKT055: TRANCE BAND - Entrancing
Release date: 3rd March 2023

'Soft and Black'
Modular synthesizer & voice – KIM KHAN


In a global landscape that increasingly prioritizes individuality over collaborative expression, TRANCE is a distinctive project. Initiated by Chinese multidisciplinary artist Tianzhuo Chen, best known for his work with Asian Dope Boys, TRANCE is as artistically amorphous as its constantly evolving line-up, that fluctuates as it shimmers across borders and time-zones. In 2019, the project was demoed in Beijing as part of a solo exhibition from Chen, a 12-hour durational performance that examined the altered states of living and dying and pondered the sounds, sensations, bodies and spaces that notion might suggest. On hold for three years due to COVID-19 restrictions, TRANCE was eventually premiered in Hamburg at the Kampnagel Theatre last year where it was presented as a surreal three-day ceremony. This time around the Trance Band was made up of Berlin-based noisemaker and vocalist Dis Fig, Indonesia's Gabber Modus Operandi, musician and MC KIM KHAN, guitarist and engineer Felix-Florian Tödtloff, and Vancouver-based percussionist and producer CITY. Chen directed the show, channeling each artist's unique energy into an alliance that highlighted their independent skills while pushing towards ideas that simply couldn't have been realized discretely.

"Entrancing" is a live documentation of that incendiary Hamburg session, powered by the performative fireworks that came from having the project halted for two years before it was allowed to burst into life once more. Just as with previous iterations of TRANCE, the space was terraformed into an alien landscape that allowed the collective to enact a carnivalesque display that was tightly controlled but creatively boundless. Musical u-turns were accompanied by monumental stage overhauls that reshaped a muddy, fog-filled outdoor riverscape into an arena, or a sweaty nightclub. This theatrical impact can't be visualized as clearly on the record, but musical cues do just enough heavy lifting to provide a tantalizing contour. When the alluring electro-acoustic plucks and resonant sustained string tones of 'There's a Ghost in the Lantern' cascade into cinematic drone metal on 'Ylva's Theme', it's impossible not to be drawn into the TRANCE narrative. Sonic stage lights flicker with uncommon intensity as the nebulous group rewrite their collective personal stories into stirring, synergistic poetry.

"Something changes!" KIM KHAN calls out on 'Soft and Black', cutting through warbling synths and itchy beatbox percussion. The track builds quickly, reaching a sizzling crescendo of buzzsaw noise and acidic electronics. It's a stylistic sea change that channels the group's kinetic energy into a rock show, and CITY picks up the message on 'Trance Genesis', adding rapid-fire drums to a barrage of guitar skronk. 'Shaolin Affliction' glues Trance Band's jagged artistic edges to a vintage metal template, gradually dissolving into throaty post-hardcore, while 'My Fortress' brings the show to a powerful conclusion with Dis Fig assuming the role of grunge balladeer, bellowing into the void over cacophonous live instrumentation. Unbound by musical and artistic conventions, TRANCE peers out from the basement, the gallery and the playhouse to forge an expression that's all of this and something new entirely. It's refreshing, witty, exhilarating and most of all, completely unpredictable.

Entrancing

TRANCE BAND - Soft and Black

IVORY BLACK - ANOINTMENT OF THE SICK

QUANTUM TERROR MANIFEST

sysadmin - Morphallaxis

Post Hoc