Laenz & T5UMUT5UMU link up for ‘Unsleep’ EP on Eastern Margins

Laenz and T5UMUT5UMU are joining forces for a debut collaborative release on Eastern Margins titled ‘Unsleep’.

The five-track EP arrives on November 6. It’s described as “part reaction, part counter-narrative to the frayed edges of our bleak reality”, showcasing shrill vocals and a blend of rough-edged and dreamlike production.

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It marks the third release to come out on the London-based collective’s label, which focuses on spotlighting East & South East Asian creatives, following on from Ill Japonia’s ‘Ill’ and QQBBG’s ‘Magic Legacy.

In a quote accompanying ‘Unsleep’, the New York-based Laenz and Tokyo-based T5UMUT5UMU said: “Imagine a pair of chopsticks submerged into a glass of water. They appear to be bent by refraction of light. While veritably straight, this encounter gives credence to the mental image of curved chopsticks. At times, we process this temporality into a dream state, a safeguard against a dissipating world. Yet when transience is incongruous with our wakeful states, dreams, clung to for their impermanence, uncover a reality that is just as illusory.

"Whether a spectre or a dream, perceptual experience exists. As dreams and reality clash, they create frictional heat, dissolving a once tenuous boundary. The sensation that differentiates the two is an uncalibrated compass. While this blurred landscape sits through an eclipse, the future becomes backlit with promise, a contour of dissimulated simulation. The dream, rather than a speculative retreat, becomes the illumination. To unsleep is to undo is to unlearn, a chance at reversibility and a sense of mutable permanence.”

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‘Unsleep’ will be available from Eastern Margin’s Bandcamp. Check out the artwork and tracklist below.

Tracklist:
01. Blue Moon
02. fantasma
03. Death Blossom
04. Fever
05. Ontogenesis

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter

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