For ZULI's second artist as guest curator for the Rhythmic Culture podcast he picks the Cairo-based artist Ashrar.

ZULI: "Ashrar is another obvious choice because, to him, music is sacred; it shouldn't be informed by any non-creative forces. He reflects these values clearly through his work as a curator, DJ and producer, and has therefor created his own sort of palette of sounds, artists and labels within which he operates. It's what sets him apart as a DJ, which is why I picked him for this series."

@ashrardj

RC:144 Ashrar

@e-saggila
@elp4c

Bristol based producer Elpac has been emerging onto the scene at quite some pace. These past two years have introduced a host of releases to the artist’s toolbox and there’s no sign of that slowing down. Markham Road Records is happy to announce Elpac’s fourth full EP in the form of a colossal speaker weight ready to test your home system and your neighbours ability to put up with it. Boasting a strong five track makeup, the EP lands true with three original tracks and two remixes from E-Saggila and Henzo.

www.instagram.com/markhamroadrec/

Late Night Bribe [MR004]

BANDCAMP

Elpac - Late Night Bribe (E-Saggila Remix)

buy at https://temet.bandcamp.com

Simo : 'This is the first installment of a new serie called ‘Simo Live Cuts’. It will feature tracks taken from my live set. Those who attended Rewire, Sustain Release, Atonal or Blockhaus DY10 this year will recognize some parts of it :)

I'm currently exploring a spontaneous and lively sound with more dynamic and movement.The tracks have this jam vibe in their structure that I love.'

Simo Live Cuts I

Simo Cell - Vitesse

Bait's 3rd VEP, Out of Step, looks into industrial, mechanical sounds, some of which almost don’t qualify as “dance” music anymore. ex.sses, lloydfears, Ōtone, VCR and gillielove take you on a march where you feel like you keep tripping up. The sound of glitchy, distorted things, being chopped up or smashed into pieces, this is what unites these 5 tracks in a various almost out of step with the rest of Bait’s releases.

Lloydfears
@lloydfears
www.instagram.com/lloydfears/

Bait
@baitlabel

Out Of Step VEP

Does This Resonate

Premiere: lloydfears - does this resonate | Bait

@Entranas fuses Ecuadorian polyrhythms with the serrated textures of UK bass and grime on his incoming third album

‘Caverna’ is out this Friday (27th September) via @infinite-machine – have an exclusive first listen to ‘Nauseas’

More info: https://djmag.com/listen/premiere-entranas-nauseas

Caverna

Premiere: Entrañas ‘Nauseas’

Listen to "Spliced From Memory" by georg-i taken from VA "lain os is online vol. 2: club cyberia" out on 15th October via Absurd TRAX

Bandcamp: https://absurdtrax.bandcamp.com

From ‘lain os is online vol. 2: club cyberia’, the 33rd release from Absurd TRAX (@absurd-creation), out on Oct 15. Building on the foundation laid by volume 1, this collection brings together another 17 artists from across the globe, spanning from Argentina to Hong Kong, all paying homage to Serial Experiments Lain—the quintessential anime for our generation.

Links:
www.lain-os-is.online
Absurd TRAX
https://soundcloud.com/absurd-creation
absurdtrax.bandcamp.com/artists
https://www.instagram.com/absurdtrax
georg-i
https://soundcloud.com/georg-i
https://georg-i.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/_georg_i_

lain os is online vol. 2: club cyberia

absurd trax

georg-i - Spliced From Memory (Absurd TRAX)

www.instagram.com/cortical_fm ( @cortical_fm )
www.instagram.com/plasma__sources/

Plasma Sources marks its 5th release with Cortical’s debut EP, ‘Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes’. Pulling from both the extreme fringes of experimental music and the minimalistic tendencies of the UK bass continuum, the duo’s much-awaited first release acts as the locus point between dance floor sensibility and sonic exploration in its most immersive, visceral sense.

Cortical are world builders first and foremost. With backgrounds rooted as much in the visual arts as audio, the duo’s live AV show has already garnered critical acclaim after standout performances at Sónar and Lunchmeat. Coupling this with their list of past collaborators - which includes the likes of Holly Herndon, Arca and Skrillex - and it becomes easy to see why there’s so much hype around Cortical right now. Indeed, this EP is the culmination of months of building excitement amongst those in the know, as fragments of raw footage captured from Cortical’s shows begin to amass on social media.

‘Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes’ itself feels like the auditory equivalent of a fragmentary existence forming, fragmenting and reforming again. Noise and distortion act as integral threads throughout the EP, but on the first track, ‘Telúrica’, they take centre stage. Brittle percussive calls give way to a thick wall of bass-laden, cinematic viscerality which hits the listener almost as hard as the ensuing rhythmic carnage which erupts halfway through.

Mortar, immediately fires away into more rhythmic madness, as elements of dubstep, metal and grime coalesce into blasted kick patterns which sound like the contractions of an eldritch machine’s digestive tract. Noise-tainted bass tones kick in, tearing in and out of reality and slowly 
dominating the environment as Mortar progresses into deeper territory.

Up next, Shiny Surgery provides a respite, with electro-tinged drippings of lasers and wet gloops lifting the listener into a more sanitised and lighter space than its predecessors. Cortical’s extreme musical influences are still at play here with their signature eroded bass weight and splintered percussion on display, but in a more restrained sense. As the halfway point comes in, so too does the most introspective section of Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes, as cinematic floating pads de-sterilise the space.

Finishing things up is the namesake of the EP and arguably the most anthemic listen of the release. On Wretched Patterns And Terrible Mistakes, demented vocal chants call out across a disintegrating claustrophobic space, before grime kicks and fragmented breakbeat loops explode into existence, demanding full dance floor attention. This is pure-peak time energy, although still entirely in line with Cortical’s immersive approach to world-building and sonic exploration.

Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes operates equally as an enclosed, hermetic exploration of Cortical’s fragmented, low-end focused sonic landscapes and equally as an assortment of dangerously effective club tracks guaranteed to turn heads.

Written and Produced by Sevi Iko Dømochevsky & Daniel Benza 
Mixed by James Ginzburg 
Mastered by HYPNA 
Artwork designed by Cortical

© 2024 Plasma Sources.

Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes

Telúrica

Cortical - Telúrica

Step into the haunted abyss — it’s Halloween, and the Ghost Train is boarding. Vina Konda returns to the label for a second outing, delivering a brutal three-track descent where the raw power of metal crashes into the deep pull of dub. An Absurd Baroque journey into horror, pulling you under waves of distortion until there’s nothing left but the crushing dark.

Vina Konda - Push On Me

Moshi Moshi

Yoko

The Vault

Amsterdam-based music platform, artist agency, record label and event organization representing music culture since 2016.

Artist roster:
AliA (@aliamusicc)
askmelater (@akaaskmelater)
King Kami (@kiingkami)
Lieke TR (@lieke-tr)
Lolo Batten (@lolobatten)
Low End Activist (@lowendactivist)
Max Abysmal (@maxabysmal)
Narathip (@narathip-ams)
Nathan Kofi (@nathankofi)
NPLGNN (@nplgnn)
ojoo (@ojoogyal)
Photonz (@photonz)

Head of music: brendan@rhythmicculture.com 
Bookings: tim@rhythmicculture.com
PR: pr@rhythmicculture.com
General inquiries: info@rhythmicculture.com