As The Cosmological Constant opens up slow in its intended listening session, Bitbasic‘s approach becomes clear, he plays games with the listener, toying with genre, pulling from IDM, glitch, trip-hop, and jazz without settling into any one space.
Prioritizing sonic identity over accessibility
Glitchpulse Records, formerly the IDMf Netlabel, founded in 2008 out of the IDMforums community—arrives at its 15th release with The Cosmological Constant by Bitbasic. The label, rooted in a community active since 2006 for producers exploring IDM, ambient, glitch, and experimental sound, rebranded from IDMf Netlabel to Glitchpulse in April 2024. It’s a community-built platform with over 200 artists in its catalog, and GPR015 marks a reunion of sorts. Simon Haycock, the UK-based producer behind Bitbasic, has been making playful, uplifting glitch-electronica since his teens, with releases on Monotonik, Rec72, and Get Some Records. He first caught attention back on IDMf003: Mind Tree with “Fractal Pants,” a hard-hitting opener that made an impression. Seventeen years later, the label slid into his DMs and came out with an EP. Good call.
A short release of tracks that don’t sound alike but resonate with the same style. As the release opens up slow in its intended listening session, Bitbasic‘s approach becomes clear, he plays games with the listener, toying with genre, pulling from IDM, glitch, trip-hop, and jazz without settling into any one space. His productions have always been described as experimental but organic, with a looseness to the tempo and pitch that keeps things feeling alive rather than programmed.
Standouts: “Society Garlic”—just because of how the drums feel and sound. Simple and yet so reminiscent of that classic old experimental drum sound with IDM. There’s a restraint to it that works. Not trying to impress, just sitting in the pocket and doing its job. “The Cosmological Constant” is an interesting piece. Much like “Orders,” the first track on the release, both can be related in their sound and style. It might even be that “The Cosmological Constant” is a continuation of what was going on with “Orders”—mixed with jazz and saxophone, very jazz-inflected. Squarepusher‘s Hard Normal Daddy (1997) comes to mind here, specifically in the drums and rhythm and style. That album was a landmark for how live jazz elements, particularly bass and drum interplay, could be transplanted into electronic music without losing the spontaneity of the original performance. Haycock is clearly pulling from that same well, and you can hear it clearly.
“Radiate” is where things get genuinely interesting. What’s going on with the drum play here is worth paying attention to. The drums are rolling, rushing, stuttering—no solid beat, just snare rushes and stutters cycling through delays at varying speeds. This is a technique rooted in jazz brush work and drum and bass processing, where the snare loses its anchor point and becomes a textural element rather than a rhythmic one. The result is a track that feels like it’s constantly falling forward, never quite landing, perpetually in motion. It’s an unsettling listen in the best way, the kind of production detail that reveals itself more on repeated listens.
The entire release seems to want to throw the listener off. It’s not catchy or immediately captivating, and that’s not what it’s there for, it’s really an experience. Haycock has always prioritized sonic identity over accessibility, and The Cosmological Constant is no different. For GPR015, it’s a strong entry in a catalog that has always valued intent over formula.
The Cosmological Constant is available on Glitchpulse. [Bandcamp]
