ALEPH - NEXT HYPE [EP]

@aleph_sound Art: www.instagram.com/matt.psd/ Blending classic motifs with modern production ethos, Renraku presents NEXT HYPE, a 4-track ep by ALEPH. Following his debut on Mat Zo’s imprint, MAD ZOO, and several widely successful sample packs on splice, ALEPH brings his self-described “Apocalypse Rave” sound to the next level. Whether it’s the break ridden analog bass music “ULTRAVIOLET”, the subharmonic grooves of the titular “NEXT HYPE”, the deconstructed-then-refined riddim in “CHAMPION SOUND”, or the wall shaking warehouse-on-acid “LA$ER BEAM$”, NEXT HYPE brings a far future sound to electronic music built from the remnants of the past that will keep you moving from now til 20XX.

Fresh out of the wake of his single release last week, ALEPH unveils his newest collection of sonic hand grenades with the full release of the NEXT HYPE EP. Thoroughly germinated with his signature fidelity-busting textures, this EP is at once both familiar and entirely unique; utilizing his preferred language of audio asymmetry and brutish compression, ALEPH covers a host of tempos of atmospheres across the four collective tracks.

“ULTRAVIOLET” is the brain buster you didn’t know you were looking for, opening the EP with spectral filtering and positively massive breaks. High-resonance filters sweep across the upper-mid-range, highlighting harmonics and distorting the brightest points of synthesis into a veritable ceiling. The bass lines are a vicious amalgamation of home-brewed sound design and relentless resampling, with every last audio artifact taken fully advantage of.

“LA$ER BEAMS” is the heavy-weight closer, bringing the EP to an eruptive end. The song itself is a 12-gauge blast to the senses, with every texture, tone, and waveform viciously distorted into an aural 1-inch punch. Staccato resampling busts the beat in half while fractured acid synthesis spikes and phases in and out of the wider stereo space. Just when you think you’ve hit the peak of intensity, the next bar is waiting to push the audio envelope even further.

Renraku Global Media has featured ALEPH across their release cycle for nearly two years and running, and it’s absolutely no wonder why. With such a diverse production palette coupled with his massive execution, ALEPH is shaping up to be far more than just the typical low-end enthusiast. Pay close attention to his future endeavors, as he’s sure to continue busting boundaries and redefining the landscape of sound design and engineering. For a further look into the EP, check out our premier and review of the title track “NEXT HYPE” here.

FOLLOW ALEPH: SoundCloud / Facebook / Spotify

FOLLOW RENRAKU: SoundCloud / Facebook / Bandcamp

ALEPH - NEXT HYPE [Premiere]

Breaking beat boundaries and blasting brain waves, ALEPH returns to the spotlight with the release of NEXT HYPE. A longtime resident with the label Renraku, ALEPH specializes in musical asynchronicity. This marks his production and makes it recognizable. Extremely saucy interpolation, audio artifacts, and crushing wave forms are the staples of his arsenal, and his newest endeavor takes all those assets along for the ride.

The title track “NEXT HYPE” is a fresh interpretation of the ALEPH style, channeling the power of breakbeat dance floor madness. He steers his preferred textures in new directions, and a retro-future smoothness is substituted for the hair-splitting intensity of his usual work. The percussion is an amalgamation of drums, pops, smacks, and aural bubbles slapping back and forth in the stereo space, throwing the listener into a hyperspace disco. Low-end grit and distortion plays it's part subtly, with bass lines laying down a follow-the-leader funk that shimmies in between each pang of the drums. Topping off the track like a cherry, the glitched-out audio trinkets that dance throughout the composition bring three-dimensional life to what would otherwise become too static of a song.

ALEPH always makes a killer first impression, and if you're just now learning about this stalwart audiophile, you're in for an absolute treat. If you have to get your hands on more, fear not; NEXT HYPE drops in full next Friday, March 15.

FOLLOW ALEPH: SoundCloud / Facebook / Spotify

Aleph Conjures Lo-Fi Bass Music on Vol. 1

Without having the thrill of listening to ALEPH before, one would be excused for overlooking his overtly unassuming new EP, Vol. 1, released through the wonderful Renraku Global Media. One would be robbed of a visceral pleasure. Take a pinch of time today to digest this one, which has all the space-age, low-end blitzkrieg sound loved so universally, revisioned in a spectrum and soundscape that is often reserved for the more hip-hop oriented genres of electronic music and production.

With so many chasing the cleanest, most manicured dirty sound, a fundamentally lo-fi bass music is difficult to conceptualize. ALEPH presents this music - dirty distorted sharp bass beats coated in lo-fi texture - with startling originality on Vol. 1. After a few tunes one begins to hear how Vol. 1, titled with such inaugural flourish, could indeed be a start for something great. Burnished basslines, asymmetrical sound synthesis, and dusted percussion dominate the EP, but not without a touch of hair-splitting nuance in musicality.

Dive deep into the record and one will bring back to the surface a special sort of tango between brutal neck-breakers, swampy face-melters, and a dash of downtempo fluidity. Two tracks serve as avatars of this one-off stylization of what are otherwise a set of straightforward but disparate genres; “Solomon”, and “Scintillations”. “Solomon” unleashes a firestorm of gritty sub lines, flared up with carefully placed punches in the higher octaves to bring that veritable “glitch”, satisfying the listeners’ want for a-rhythmic, laser beam syntax. “Scintillations” thrives in it’s own wake as the counterpoint to the entire EP. It’s the most melodious effort on the collection, eschewing crunchy subs and freaky mid-range synthesis for a more scaled-down approach. The careful drum programming, coupled with distinctly distorted pad melodies, screams to be rendered in the highest fidelity possible, but that would be the antithesis of this track, and of what appears as the entire ethos of the EP.

It is specifically the dust and dirt that so many would rather wash away that add full flavor and flow to Vol. 1, summoning images of rainy, city alleyways littered with half-glittering tin tchotchkes clattering together in a breeze. Certainly the release demands multiple run-throughs to hone in on the eclectic sound design choices. Fortunately, you can take as much time as you need - until Volume 2, of course.

FOLLOW Aleph:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook