The Electronica Outskirts #7

Of all the genres I cover on this blog, darkness seem to be a recurring component. I like it dark, futuristic, dystopian, slightly inaccessible and deep. Not too noisy, not too intense, just… Black and moist and gritty.

Here’s no less than four tracks of the more experimental kind that all falls under the above description.

Cymek – Different

Starting off with this percussive, massive wobbly blob of… Bass. Tons and tons of bass. Bass upon bass upon bass. With a bass on top.

At a pace that is so fitting. This is not an agile creation. This one is as thick and sticky and slow moving as the grittiest sap from the oldest tree in the darkest woods.

And man – dat bass.

Tarune – Rend

The mad darkness continues in this next track, who belongs to the techno genre but is as experimental as techno used to be, and techno typically isn’t that anymore. The genre has been mainstreamed. So from that perspective I added this one to our leftfield coverage.

It’s a massive, dystopian monster of a track. Total anarchy, chaos, survival of the fittest. This is not a place I’d want to live. But damn if I’d love to hear this one at a massive club!

You – Primitive Land

The contrast can’t get any bigger with this next track. At least not at first glance…. Gone is the heavy, big-footed and brutal bass, away is the acidic fogs, the stark futuristic scenes.

But the darkness remains. A melancholic darkness, a solitude voice from a peculiar character.

And just as we start getting comfortable with all it’s beauty, it changes character. Into a more threatening shape, as it rises and clinch its fists.
And then, all of a sudden you realise why I included this track in our session today.

Visco City – Press and Release

I’m rounding off todays session in a slightly brighter fashion, although we’re not toally leaving the shadows. Samples of newsreaders reporting the pain and suffering of our world, weaved in amongst gritty textures and growling distorted bass: It’s not exactly a sunny day at the beach, this one.

But it’s ligher on the foot compared to the other tracks. More accessible. We needed that, after the above darkness.

And it is also a track really fun to explore. Great details in the arrangement, lovely snappy beat, great contrasts between the naive piano and the gritty distorted bassline.

Plus, of course, it has a certain “sci-fi vibe” to it. That’s never wrong in my book.


Four great tracks to add to our increasingly good Leftfield playlist, “The Electronica Outskirts“, where we collect only the best new releases who we find to be experimental enough to be granted an entry.