RELEASE: Mental Ballast EP
ARTIST(S): Kercha, Yoofee
REMIXERS:
LABEL: DNO Records | DNO007
GENRE: LOSSLESS, 140 / Deep Dubstep / Grime
RELEASED: 2021-10-29
AVAILABLE FORMAT: 780Kbps/LOSSLESS
DOWNLOAD SIZE: 128.51 MB
TOTAL TRACKS 5
- Kercha – Ignorants (04:08) key, bpm140
- Kercha – Mental Ballast (04:10) key, bpm70
- Kercha, Yoofee – Analysis (04:10) key, bpm141
- Kercha – Tigers (04:22) key, bpm140
- Kercha – Acid (04:22) key, bpm105
Total Playtime: 00:21:12 min
Now firmly established as a staple of DNO Records, Russian producer Kercha follows up two outstanding releases with his first outing of 2021, the ‘Mental Ballast’ EP. His off-kilter signature is prominent right from the opening bars of ‘Ignorants’ – the shimmering oscillations, idiosyncratic samples and subtle bass pulse we’ve come to know and love once again brought together like wisps of dark magic. Here, they’re placed alongside a clip of Russian maestro E. Ponasenkov calmly flexing his intelligence, dropping a threat that also serves as a warning for the bassline yet to come: ‘I will destroy you! ‘Mental Ballast’ ups the ante, with a distinctive percussive shuffle. Hats, claps and other things that go clang form a pointillistic display above the drawn-out low-end, before a whooping siren is beamed in at half time to send the track stratospheric. ‘Analysis’, a collaboration with rising Berlin artist Yoofee, has more than a touch of purple about it. Packed with buzzing synth chords and glowing arpeggios, it might otherwise be uplifting, had they not been paired with an anxiety-fuelled vocal snippet and monstrous bassline. A very Kercha juxtaposition. On ‘Tigers’, his trademark wobble is taken to new heights, this time forming a spine that runs the length of the track, constantly threatening to break through the skin of bright synths and ghost-like fuzz that wouldn’t go amiss in Pokémon Tower. Finally, ‘Acid’ reverberates to spun-out rattles and bitcrushed bleeps, like tripping and falling into the dark oblivion at the bottom of a pinball machine. And for every sonic oddity and twisted noise, the silence that hangs between is just as important. Kercha’s stripped-back, mischievous productions invite imaginative listening, encouraging the mind to wander, and creating the potential for the music to be far more than the sum of its parts. Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.//
