Shortwave Research Group
New album ‘Fabryka’ released May 8th via Social Proof
Stream title track ‘Fabryka’
Expansive and ambitious, the third full length from Shortwave Research Group is a Brutalist monument rendered in sound. Towering concrete structures push against the skyline and low frequency pressure seeps from every crack in the granite.
Spanning eight tracks, it would be easy to classify this record as dark ambient, however its influences are drawn from a much wider set of places, taking in techno, hip hop and modern classical compositions. Released early May, ‘Fabryka’ was written over a two year space between London and Berlin. It was influenced heavily by time spent in dense cities while the 2017-19 political landscape seemly blurred the lines between reality and science fiction.
Informed by monolithic visuals, hard and monochrome, ‘Fabryka’ seems at first impenetrable and mysterious but peeling back its textured layers inspire paranoia, uncertainty, and helplessness. As harsh and unforgiving as the dystopian future it imagines.
The vast and spacious ‘Intro’ feeds effortlessly into a record that takes its cues as much from the likes of The Future Sound Of London or the later work of 65daysofstatic as it does from film. ‘Hostile Environment’ contains its own impending warnings about the future while the title track is a nightmarish and sinister groove. Elsewhere on the likes of ‘Perpetual Midnight’ and ‘Coherence’, a cacophony of delicate and precise synths entwine perfectly to create their daunting atmospherics.
Closer ‘Citizen Of Nowhere’ is a slower, relaxed piece that encapsulates a sense of acceptance; closure for an album with concepts as colossal as the cityscapes it depicts. Based in Central Europe, Shortwave Research Group experiments with applying the heft of these physical structures to sound waves, weaving together influences ranging from minimalism, drone and cinematic scores to heavy drum and bass music.
The result is music designed to be experienced on the biggest, most powerful club systems but that explicitly deconstructs, subverts and re-configures the language of the sounds typically delivered to club-going audiences.
It is music for those wishing not to dance, but to become enveloped in and overwhelmed by the texture and contour of the sound itself.
Mastering by Mark at Calyx Mastering
Artwork by Punkt Widzenia
Tracklist:
Intro
Hostile Environment
Fabryka
Perpetual Midnight
Fabryka Interlude
Coherence
Linear B
Citizen Of Nowhere
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