éstudy
Wave of Resilience
Wie Ein Gott
Brooklyn-based producer éstudy has been all over the place in the last couple of years, putting out releases with Pildoras Tapes, Mosaique, Miseria and several others. The project’s first release on Wie Ein Gott Wave of Resilience is as good a place to familiarize yourself with the project as any, providing handy examples of the various styles and modes that éstudy has touched on. Opener “Watch Your Step” is a hefty slice of industrial techno that doesn’t skimp on the industrial part of the equation, reinforcing its lockstep cymbals and kicks with machinegun snares, metallic percussion and manic 16th note sequences that cinch the tension early. Alternately “Tip Toe Around” is a more straightforward techno number, propelled by a simple kick-hi-hat-snare pattern and atonal synths, with ghostly and menacing ambience that surrounds it’s stuttering vocal samples and warbly bass. As a change of pace “Feel the Wave” goes for a more rocklike arrangement, with the bass and drums feeling more loose and elastic, the addition of more rigid and mechanical passages throwing the song’s contrasts into sharp relief. Intriguingly, “Don’t Press that Button” forgoes most techno markers but keeps the atmospherics, landing somewhere in body music territory, albeit with some tweaky synths and syncopated drums to offset the minimalism of its melody, a balancing act that points to éstudy’s studied approach to production.
Dr. Oso
Hooligan Beat
self-released
The elevator pitch on the new EP from Dr. Oso couldn’t be better suited to grab our attention if someone spent years poring over the ID:UD archives in order to target a release just for us: Argentinian body music with a heavy new beat influence which draws upon the intoxicated violence of football hooliganism. Niche? Of course. Immediate and playing out exactly like what you’d expect something with that pitch to sound like? Definitely. Lo-fi, dead-simple, and speedy EBM rhythms with some icy new beat pads and a healthy dollop of acid make up the lion’s share of Hooligan Beat. Eschewing both anhalt and mutant EBM for a decidedly swampy and burpy sound, tracks like “Trench Fight” and “Lager Dance” get a good amount of mileage out of heavy sampling and rapidly arpeggiating bass. Sure, some of the tracks here feel a bit long and underwritten, but when you have Millwall FC’s infamous “no one likes us, we don’t care” chant being chopped up and stabbed in between staccato, rubbery basslines which sound straight out of 1993, who cares? Factor in an on-brand remix from Chrome Corps & Einhander, projects definitely in sync with Dr. Oso’s ethos (and for some reason a remix of Gang Of Four’s “To Hell With Poverty”?) and you’re just a few tins of Carling away from a riot.
