Dystopik - Squat Juice [Single]

Bending frequencies with blistering aggression, Dystopik reaches maximum energy levels with his latest single “Squat Juice”. This one comes of vicious label Wonk#Ay Records where Dystopik is a mainstay. He’s spent the last year and change producing all manner of bass tasters ranging across the rhythmic spectrum in both full and half-time interpretations. Within this steady string on destructive wave-bending, “Squat Juice” is another notch up on his own boisterous scale.

The meat of “Squat Juice” is it’s bone-shattering bass line. The synthesis is crushed with oversaturation and compression, resulting in a mutant tone that bangs out of speaker cones. Blasting in tandem with the bass line, the percussive design and arrangement is hair-raising and high-octane. Massive kicks propel each phrase into a bevy of heat-seeking snares that ping-pong around the tonal elements in the track. As for melody, there ultimately isn’t much. What we’re dealing with here is pure, unbridled sonic force.

Wonk#Ay Records has an reputation for fostering unconventional bass music. The raw energy that exudes from their catalog is a testament to their extensive research and scouting of underground sonic bruisers. Dystopik has certainly earned his keep with their lot, having been featured on numerous compilations and releases, including Pull Up, Feed The Contagious, and The Tronic. Stay tuned into his beefy frequency, and you might just get tossed around in a torrent of sound.

FOLLOW Dystopik: Facebook / Soundcloud

Wonk#ay Records - Pull Up EP

Something about the United Kingdom foments the growth of dark, twisted bass music so properly, and our friends at Wonk#ay Records serve up the latest example of this well established relationship with Pull Up. This ambitious release showcases the talents of Objcts, Dystopik, Rupta, Zimbu, and includes an absolutely smashing collaboration from neuro heavy-weights Kursa and Seppa. All six producers come correct with their signature idiosyncrasies and sound design exploits.

In October of 2017, Wonk#ay Records had heads spinning with their compilation Feed the Contagious. This collection of tunes was a mutagenic foray into the most aggressive corners of contemporary low end production, and received an explosive response from fans and fellow producers alike. This time around, Wonk#ay presents a more compressed package (pun intended), and while they scaled down the size, the impact is no less visceral.

Objcts has perhaps the most melodious approach on the EP with “Here’s One I Prepared Earlier” graciously combining the stark, staccato textures of neuro-hop with the occasional stab and fading of delicious chimes and lead tones in the upper registers. With a constant beat in the backdrop, and a few well placed rhythmic breaks, the head-nod is strong with this aural serving.

Dystopik’s “Running Away” opens with ambient rumblings and distorted pads washing tones over the track. Quick incoming is a soft sing-song melody occasionally giving way to a voluptuous snare on the downbeat. Over the course of 90 seconds the whole track destabilizes into a maelstrom of down-sampled synthesis and rugged glitch textures that reinforce the experimental arrangement and tonal design.

Rupta wastes no time jumping right into the action with “Repochushions”; 12 seconds in and the track has already descended into a combination of shredded textures over a drumstep rhythm. The entire track is a solid thwack of choked-up bass tones and wild frequency shifts, a thick harmony of constant evolution and 100% pure beef.

While both devilishly impressive on their own terms, Kursa and Seppa often come together to produce some of the most aggressive, far-out, boisterous songs in rotation within the wider bass music community. “Pris” a bold and demonstrably vicious addition to the Pull Up EP, with brain-melting bass lines that crunch, fold, warp, and stutter-step their way through the entire composition. By the time the second half of the song comes into focus, this machine-gun-laser-annihilation takes a turn for the stretched-out and wobbly. Even more deranged bass movements envelope everything from 0-300hz in a firebrand strike of uncouth synthesis.

Zumbu closes out the compilation with his contribution “Higher”, and spares no effort in flexing straight bass weight right onto the listener’s head. With an almost slapstick percussion arrangement carrying on for the entire track, every phrase and refrain is particularly unique and programmed with a multitude of synthesis dialogue and asymmetrical audio manipulation.  

With the content of each successive release becoming more high-octane than the last, Wonk#Ay Records has set before themselves a formula that brings success to their labelmates and collaborative partners. Curating such niche catalogs while maintaining well-flavored artist pairing is no easy task, and somehow they rise to the occasion every time. Be contienscious in the months ahead, as Wonkay is certainly far from finished with their arsenal of releases for 2018.

FOLLOW Wonka#y Records:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Website

FOLLOW The Artists:

Objcts:   Soundcloud   

Dystopik:   Soundcloud   

Rupta:   Soundcloud

Kursa:   Soundcloud

Seppa:   Soundcloud

Zimbu:   Soundcloud

Wonk#ay Records - Feed the Contagious

Bass music is, in its purest form, a powerfully aggressive blanket-genre that thrives off of the manipulation of visceral, razor-sharp tones that thwack right in the chest and pulse deep in the eardrums. As Halloween rolls around each year, the spirit of the occasion has a tendency to creep its way into even the finest threads of low-end brutalism, and this time, the result is nothing short of skull-splitting: FEED THE CONTAGIOUS, a brand new compilation of specifically-produced tunes, hits the airwaves today via Wonk#Ay Records. 

Hailing from Brighton, UK, Wonk#Ay records began in 2004 as an initiative to immerse the Brighton club scene in free events hosting experimental music. By 2008, the official record label was born, and the operation was spearheaded by the release of their first compilation, GnomeOrWar, which featured a host of international artists showcasing an eclectic collection of lightning-paced psybient tracks. Within a few years the label began to shift their focus towards mid-tempo, glitch, dubstep, drum-&-bass, neuro, and techno, and would go on to greatly expand their talent pool; Kursa, Seppa, Dystopik, Hurtdeerand their label mates represent the face of Wonk#Ay Records, and together create the war-brand responsible for their label's most potent release to date. 

FEED THE CONTAGIOUS is a nuclear powerhouse of bone-smashing breakdowns, combining the talent of a multi-faceted team of top-flight producers and bass enthusiasts. It is a neural labyrinth of sine-wave compression synthesis, saturation, blistering percussion, and of course, pulverizing bass lines. Bringing each of their trademark styles to the table, this compilation is as much a cooperation amongst these sub-frequency dons as it is a competition for the most brutal, rhythmic cacophony. 

Kursa and Seppa concoct a potion of the highest magnitude, as expected and always delivered. Friendly Fade takes halftime d-n-b and flips it right on its head, panning back and forth between crunchy shuffles and meticulous blast-beats, bringing in aggressive timbres akin to British metal and punk music. Brief flashes of melodious pads are quickly washed away by a torrent of low-end obliteration wrapped in a percussive hailstorm.

Zimbu brings down the hammer with an industrial-era soundscape; Planets In Orbit vibrates to a metal-on-metal frequency, with a blistering bass tone complimented by a steel pipe snare on the most favorable downbeats, leaving just enough room for a bevy of atmospheric glitches to tighten the mix and randomize the direction.

Dystopik cranks up the bpm for his contribution, coming up to bat with a wild halftime d-n-b onslaught called Pulled to Pieces. Granular textures float amidst a sea of white noise and hard-wired kicks and snares battling for dominance. The mean-mugged FM bass synthesizers fire off like a malfunctioning machine gun, spraying the auditory field with a maelstrom of sub-bass and squared-off frequencies.

Wonk#Ay spares absolutely no expense or effort in their collaborative efforts with an ecosystem of top-flight producers. The FEED THE CONTAGIOUS compilation is a Trojan warhorse in an over-saturated sea of similar tones and musical stylings. The necessity to stand out, when much of modern bass music seems a simulacrum of itself, is met with outstanding sound design, mix downs, mastering, and deliberately "throwing the kitchen sink at the wall". All listeners should take the proper time to submerge themselves into each track in this collection, and when the end of the road is reached, Wonk#Ay Records has a wildly impressive back-catalog spanning back to 2008, all 100% FREE (with the option of donation), with quality being the absolute first defining marker of every release. This compilation has just been released into the hands of the masses, and we already can't wait for what Wonk#Ay has next up their sleeves.

FOLLOW Wonk#Ay Records:   Official   /   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook