Yet in 2022, with the myriad of options and templates for experimental electronics, one avenue perhaps remains the most divisive, obnoxious, ingenious, wild and at times, controversial: Modular synthesis.
Both Mack Chami (God Is War, Koufar, Terror Cell Unit, Crown Of Cerberus etc.) and myself (Apaixonar, Plagues, Sensory Deprivation etc.) are no strangers to attempting different tactics and sonic / aesthetic approaches, and I would say that incorporating the unwieldy and chaotic world of modular for both of our artistic paths has been one of the most both challenging and liberating approaches to creating sounds I can think of. It is with these sometimes crude, sometimes highly complex weapons so to speak that all sounds and structures here were created.
A limitation so to speak set on the means by which to create, yet using tools infinitely malleable.
Both Midwest at heart, Mack and I share a deep affinity for a great number of extreme, heavy, cold, emotive and challenging electronic works and otherwise spanning Hip-Hop, IDM, Techno, Hardcore, Jungle, Grime, Juke and more.
In 2003, the world was graced with one of the finest musical collaborations to ever take place: Detroit, Michigan meets Los Angeles / West Coast via Champion Sound by J Dilla (R.I.P.) and Madlib.
The record showcased each producer sending a beat to the other, and then each would lace the track with a vocal - Madlib MC’ing over Dilla beats, Dilla MC’ing over Madlib beats.
Through this incredibly simple and effective constraint, one of the finest modern Hip-Hop LPs was born.
It is this direct inspiration taken to our approach of sending ‘beats’ and ‘rhymes’ back and forth:
Vol. 1 mainly is the visions of GIW taking APX melodic stems, modular drum grooves and wavetable synth snippets into unimaginable territories spanning crude jungle, menacing industrial, and a gorgeous IDM-laced trap anthem aptly entitled Oriental Trap House.
Vol. 2 is more the sum of APX taking structures and heavy beats and rhythms from GIW into at times melodic Sci-Fi ambient, all the way into fractured 90’s PSX OST and breaks worship, modern electronic composition and Chicago Footwork rhythms.
My hope is that this work inspires risk, collaboration, free creativity and exploration - To maybe perhaps challenge one's own comfort zone, especially those of us feeling pressured or ensnared in today’s anti-imaginative echo chamber of artistic trappings of needing to fit into this or that category, to appear just the right way or sound ‘harsh’ or ‘dark’ or like dreamy ‘Instagram driven plant ambient’.
To go back to the heart and joy of making experimental music: Explore, by all means necessary
*** Brandon Hill.
§ Vol. 2
1 To Live Is To Suffer (Intro) 0:24
2 To Live Is To Suffer 2:54
3 No Bakra Inna Jungle (Total War Dub) 5:55
4 Assault On The Maziua Orbital Platform 2072 3:47
5 Polymetic Ancient Alloy (Voltage Controlled Scalpel Surgery Mix) 1:37
6 Kaibokan Depth Charge 5:15
7 Burying You In A Shallow Grave Of Broken Piano Keys 5:10
Old Europa Cafe AVS
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