Igloo Magazine :: Kid Bucle :: Memorabilia EP (Isness/Analogical Force)

A strong first outing for Kid Bucle‘s new chapter

Braindance has always carried a kind of duality at its core, the relentless, slightly unhinged acid break on one side, the melodic, emotionally generous side on the other. The best of it never picks a lane. Rephlex built an entire aesthetic out of that tension in the 90s, and labels carrying that torch since have understood that the genre’s longevity depends on holding both halves at once, the fun, frenetic breaks and the pretty, considered melodic work that gives the chaos somewhere to land.

Analogical Force, the Madrid label operating under the motto “Voice for the Voiceless,” has spent over a decade proving exactly that point, with a catalog spanning Brainwaltzera, D’Arcangelo, James Shinra, and Kettel among many others. The label supports the full range of braindance’s vocabulary, but its acid breaks remain a constant thread—nearly every artist on the roster seems to find their way back to that churned 303 squawk eventually, and they clearly love producing it. Isness, the label’s sister imprint focused on more atmospheric and introspective electronics, arrives at its third release with Memorabilia EP, introducing Kid Bucle—the new alias of Ibrah PM, previously known as Malsum within the drum and bass scene. It marks both his debut on the label and the start of a new chapter, working out of Valencia, Spain.

Memorabilia is a unique EP in that its six tracks feel sporadic rather than tightly themed, bundled together, but each pulling in a noticeably different direction. “Slowly Alive” stands out immediately for how different it is from everything around it. The drums glitch and roll with a genuinely unique sense of ambience, and the intro alone could throw the average listener off the vibe of the rest of the EP. But it’s a patient, well-constructed track, and the drum programming does it justice, plenty of detailed rolls and glitches that reward sticking with it past that opening stretch.

Layered drum rolls that build and release in waves ::

“Memorabilia,” the title track, lands well and continues the strong drum work running through the release. The programming here leans into syncopated hi-hat patterns and off-grid snare placement, that classic braindance trick of making a beat feel like it’s constantly on the verge of falling apart without ever actually doing so. It doesn’t quite reach the same level of catchiness as “Mawkish Orbit” and “Isla” though, those two are where the EP is most fully realized. The drum rhythms and melodies on both are genuinely fantastic, clearly thought through rather than assembled on instinct.

“Isla” in particular plays with layered drum rolls that build and release in waves, a technique that traces back to the way producers like Cylob and Bogdan Raczynski used to construct tension in their rhythm programming, where a roll isn’t just a fill but a structural device, pulling the listener forward into the next section rather than simply decorating the one they’re already in. There’s a real craft to making a drum roll feel inevitable rather than ornamental, and “Isla” gets that balance right. The melody sitting on top moves in small, deliberate steps rather than big sweeping phrases, which gives it room to develop across the track’s runtime instead of exhausting itself after a minute into the track.

“Mawkish Orbit” takes a similar approach but pushes the melodic content further forward in the mix, letting the drums act more as punctuation than propulsion for stretches at a time. That interplay, drums receding, melody advancing, then trading places again, is a technique that’s been a hallmark of braindance since the Rephlex era, where producers like YEE-KING and D’Arcangelo figured out that constant rhythmic intensity actually dulls impact over time. Pulling back occasionally makes the returns hit harder. There’s real intricacy in the melodic detail on each of these two tracks, the kind that rewards repeat listens rather than giving everything away on the first pass. A second or third listen reveals small countermelodies tucked behind the main line, easy to miss the first time through but rewarding once you catch them.

None of it gets boring, and the EP plays more like an experience than a collection of singles. Echoes of Merck and Chocolate Industries surface throughout, that same patient, texture-forward approach to IDM that those labels built their reputations on in the early 2000s, alongside the classic braindance lineage Analogical Force has built its name on. But Kid Bucle‘s version of it feels distinctly his own. There’s a drum and bass fingerprint underneath all of it too, a holdover from his Malsum days, where rhythmic complexity was never optional. That background shows up here not as speed or aggression, but as a kind of structural confidence, he knows exactly how much weight a break can carry before it needs to resolve, and he never lets a roll overstay its welcome.

It’s filled and jam-packed with beats and melodies that capture your attention without forcing it. A pure Analogical Force classic, and a strong first outing for Kid Bucle‘s new chapter.