Artist: Surrogate Sigma Genre: Industrial / Tribal Ambient Label: Genetic Trance CAT#: GT968 Year: 2018 (according to Bandcamp, title makes me want to say 2016, but you never know with them lol)
Surrogate Sigma is one of my favorite aliases of Vziel's, typically putting out a consistent stream of hard and experimental techno, but Ukraine 2016 completely mixes of the formula with 6 tracks of lo-fi industrial with the occasional tribal ambient. The entire album is incredibly stripped down and minimal, really letting the rhythms speak for themselves, as well as really using the low quality recording techniques as a music instrumental. There's still elements of techno in the music, but its Vatican Shadow's stuff, where techno is sort of the avenue for industrial soundscapes. I really love this kind of stuff, and Vziel really nails it here. I think the cover is quite impactful as well, the passport-esque photos on the Ukrainian flag represented through a domestic item; the Ukraine crisis long predates the current invasion, and this album really sheds a light on that.
Listen to it here: https://genetictrance.bandcamp.com/album/ukraine-2016
My commentary on the release of this week~! Gold listings means its a favorite of mine for this week~
TV1743 - Violet Powder - Bloody Massacre The first release of this week was by Violet Powder. This mini-album is a mix of their signature slow and rhythmic loli-goregrind sound and also horrorcore. The grind stuff is very nice and is unique for the genre, it doesn't sound like the typical slower side of goregrind. The horrorcore tracks on this are really nice, I love their rap stuff so I'm happy that they're releasing more of it. The vibes of these tracks vary and they feature very nice gore hop vocals, really amazing stuff. This is one of my favorites of the week~
TV1744 - ＨａｒｓｈＮｏｉｓｅＦａｃｔｏｒｙ™ - Untitled 01 ＨａｒｓｈＮｏｉｓｅＦａｃｔｏｒｙ™ at it again with another noise output, this is a newer artist to the label but they're very active~! This is a nice and dense noise track with a lot of crushing low frequencies. This is a really nice noise track~
TV1745 - Insectoid Girl - White Mantidian They told me this is ghostwave, and I have no idea wtf ghostwave is. The mini-album is very downtempo and carries heavy IDM themes, it reminds me a lot of Phoenecia. The release has downtempo beats that range from IDM to more hip-hop inspired, with dark melodies, ghostly processed samples (?), and is really nice. Seriously, check this out if you like Phoenecia.
TV1746 - Acid Applejack - LadyBug Acid Applejack delivered a nice hardstyle single this week. The single features very nice interludes between hardstyle portions full of a variety of nice sounds and melodies. This is the most "club friendly" release of the week
TV1747 - Antimatter Prism - 9 Seconds Noise For Cirno Cirno is bae and this is 9 seconds of noise dedicated to her. The single is short but is very good, loud dense noise, good stuff. Pick it up when you're downloading other releases, its only 9 seconds~!
TV1748 - AGU! - Degenerate Yessssssssssssss, more AGU!(!) AGU!'s stuff is really good, and I'm very
excited to have this on the label. This is a mini-album full of dark
breakcore, industrial tunes, dark ambient, and closes with a very nice
noise track. The whole album has an incredibly oldschool sound and vibe
to it. Loud breaks, dark atmospheres, low frequencies basslines making
the tracks full, and nice rhythmic melodies making it all the more fun
to listen to. The industrial tracks are also incredibly nice, really
good stuff. The mini-album also uses dark ambient tracks to build
bridges between songs, and its structurally very cool. I love the combo
of dark ambient and breakcore on the same album, and this does it well~
This is my favorite of the week~
