With the new two-tracks-per-month-release-series Fribourg-based collective strecke, on the one hand, extends its label work. On the other hand, it is also experimenting with a very much laid-back approach to the publishing process. Artists the collective holds dear, as well as crewmembers themselves should be able to release music in a quick and easy way. The digital releases are accompanied by artwork featuring snapshots. Here, ephemerality is not viewed as something negative, but it rather is used as a reactive approach—and strecke hopes to gain further insights into the process of releasing music. After Lcp’s Dub Techno and the IDM-Ambient variations from Layer V, Softy steps up to present Frist Bloodclot—a jungle EP.
Having current producers revisiting jungle references is not a novelty. The genre was a source for post-rave-experiments (e.g. Lee Gambles’ Diversions 1994-1996 on PAN, 2012) or has been used in house (e.g. Octa Octa’s “Move On (Let Go) (De-stress Mix)» on Honey Soundsystem, 2017) in recent years. Furthermore, jungle’s original energy for dancefloor continues to be important in revisiting the genre (most recently heard/felt on Shed aka The Higher’s “The Core,” XL Recordings 2018). Softy’s First Bloodclot EP belongs to the latter category.
Ben aka Softy has already made his first attempts to compose music during jungle’s heydays in the mid-nineties. Despite a continues tinkering with sound ever since—and experimenting with the diverse genres of electronic dance music—, his tracks never left the bedroom so far. First Bloodclut is indeed Softy’s debut EP. However, the Swiss musician has been active as a DJ (also under the DJ Deep House alias) all over the western part of Switzerland for over a decade. Also within his DJ life, as he explains to us, a certain obsession with jungle is taking over more and more.
Despite such an obsession, Softy manages to go beyond a mere revisionism of classic rave music on First Bloodclot. On the one hand, he makes use of the mutual recognition of jungle and Chicago’s juke. This may not be a new idea in itself; however, the combination continues to be fruitful. The alliance between London-amen-break-variations and the rhythms of the Windy City is also what make the first track of the EP—“Listen Stile”—interesting. “Wheel Up Signal” as well makes use of the combination. However, this track seems to offer a different kind of energy, turning everything up to eleven: Apart from the nervous percussion, the are 8bit jingles, rave-signal melodies, time deformation and abrupt stops alternating in a rapid-fire way. The tracks remind very much of Tessela’s “Hackney Parrot” (Poly Kicks, 2013) and its jungle revival formula. However, Softy re-appropriates the formula and examines it through a breakcore-lense.
Both the producer himself as well as strecke in their presentation of the EP seem to know as much about keeping a continuum alive, as providing a tongue-in-cheek view on the very continuum. They put a fast array of references into a blender until nothing and everything makes sense anymore.
Softy’s First Bloodclot EP with the two tracks “Listen Style” and “Wheel Up Signal” is out this Wednesday 16th January via strecke. (Pre-)order it over here.