Bass
April: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month
Kelly Lee Owens, Botaz, W3C and more
W3C 'State Of Absolute Alienation' (Infinite Machine)
On his first record for Montreal label Infinite Machine, Latvian producer W3C approaches the club in a different way than he has before. Though his 2015 EP on Pinch’s Cold Recordings was also a master class in large-scale, industrial techno, ‘State Of Absolute Alienation’ finds him exploring that same style even further. ‘Xenotrak’ takes a trance influence and ramps it up beyond the parameters of your everyday rave; it’s unapologetic, massive and blunt in scope, with craggy percussive layers building on top of one another.
‘Short Circuit’ works around a grimy squarewave, but that sound is only one of many significant pieces as synths growl and crash. Just when you think it can’t get any more disorienting, there’s an iteration of the dissonant strings from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The record doesn’t sound scary, though, so much as intimidating. It’s sci-fi, grime, techno and various industrial snarls all at once; it’s a record that embodies the spirit of the most brutal warehouse party you’ve ever been to, but in space.
9/10
Nina Posner is Mixmag's bass & club editor, follow her on Twitter
