Releasing your own material on a dedicated, personal platform has its pros and cons, as it obviously helps gaining focus on an independent aesthetic but also doesn’t offer group emulation. Omar Contri aka Shinoby knows this already, but feels like making the most out of this deliberate yet apparent marginality, walking a fine line between the trendy lo-fi aesthetic, 303-fueled beats on ’88 rave mode and more straightforward 4/4 motifs all the while crafting captivating, unbowed slabs.
‘Do You Know We Exist?‘ doesnt stray too much from his couple of previous outings, diving head first into a pool of heavy-battered melodies and ferocious drum-driven grooves in equal measure. ‘Fade‘ breaks the EP in with softness, aligning a slow-rising ascent of washed-out, sunburnt pads over discreet hi-hats. Don’t plan the rest of the EP to deliver such a smooth sail though.
With its existentialist heading, it’s the title-track that fires the first shots ; aligning sawn-off, steely synth flexions and bouncy off-beat percussions in a heavy-handed way. Like speeding down the motorway in a black-painted, motorised coffin, fleeing your own funeral like a thief in the night. A dry, blood-stirring call to arms for all the twisted techno heads out there. Give the finger to the reaper.
That’s the moment ‘Acid Are A Bet With Your Mind‘ falls upon you like a God-hand smack, dragging you by the feet into a hostile subterranean cathedral resonating with mourning choirs. The floor crumbles and the walls crack: a rain of lysergic bass permeates, laser-like outbursts smoking, and it’s the last place you’d have imagined an alien invasion to take place.
Jamal Moss bears the flip to its last stretch with a proper extraterrestrial revamp of the title cut, adding some further vibrating and spacey depth to the bashing patterns deployed with great fanfare by the Verona producer. Working his usual oddball magic in a topsy-turvy chaos of mutilated synth racket and well-groomed harmonics, the American producer definitely doesn’t need the force of artifice, extending the characteristic traits of Shinoby’s sound with an ever-challenging stance. Intense.
- Download Shinoby’s podcast recorded for Inverted Audio (2014) here.
Do You Know We Exist? EP is out now, order a vinyl copy from Juno.
TRACKLIST
A1 Fade
A2 Do You Know We Exist?
B1 Acids Are A Bet With Your Mind
B2 Do You Know We Exist? (The Hieroglyphic Being Experience Remix)