- Blawan ups the ante on his mind-melting production style with an EP of writhing, alien jams.
- Blawan's first XL release, Woke Up Right Handed, was almost surreally good. It took all the things we admire about the UK producer—detailed but tough production values, impossibly huge drums and a unique sense of rhythm—and used them to marry his latter-day techno style with the chaos of his early work. I pondered if it was his best record ever, which I still stand behind two years later. Now comes the follow-up, Dismantled Into Juice, an even weirder, almost bloody-minded exercise in sound that laces his wobbly club music with acerbic post-punk.
Everything on the opener "Toast" sounds like it's coming out of a toothpaste tube crushed by an anvil: the synths slither and squirm in odd spurts, over a hybrid techno beat that flirts with drum & bass and dubstep (not to mention basslines that sound like they were designed to get the best out of Corsica Studios' unparalleled Room 2 sound system). You get the feeling that Blawan is having pure fun making the weirdest, gurgliest sounds he can, and it's equally fun to listen to.
The textures are queasy on "Body Ramen," an unstable concoction of voices, sudden bursts of what sounds like strings and uneasy synthetic growns, all paired with Blawan's signature chest-punching drums. The closest thing to a club banger is "Panic," built on a bulldozer of a rhythm track, while a hoover-like synth gasps and writhes above. "Panic" sounds at least a little in control, where the others feel like they were built with faulty electrical wiring.
The remaining two cuts pair Blawan with vocalist Monstera Black, whose presence allows him to turn down the intensity a little and try on more subtle soundscapes. (Relatively.) Monstera Black's shimmering vocal hook on "You Can Build Me" is the hook, but the real head-turner is the way the snares richochet on both sides of the stereo spectrum, or how the track goes from its crushed, airless verses to the wide-open vista of the chorus. And on the delightfully visceral title track, the hushed chant—"I pick up my pieces"—is shot through a noxious filter and assaulted by clanging sounds that bounce like a boulder making its way down a rocky slope.
What's most impressive is how Blawan makes music that sounds so claustrophobic and detailed at the same time, a level of precision only matched by how it feels like he's ready to unleash chaos at any second. Dismantled Into Juice is a strange and experimental record, building on his previous XL victory lap and darting off into truly uncharted territory.
Tracklist01. Toast
02. Panic
03. You Can Build Me feat. Monstera Black
04. Body Ramen
05. Dismantled Into Juice