A heady range of sounds are explored on a compilation that grits teeth, journeys into the machine, seeks out the shadows and will go in directions few would have expected (myself included.)
It’s interesting to see two separate labels follow a particular path. You’d be forgiven for thinking Charlton and Nick Dunton’s Poverty Is Violence were a sister, brother or mutant cousin bred on a strict diet of crude oil and porridge oats, of Tar Hallow but the two are independent beings. Charlton has already featured on Tar Hallow, the Dutchman pushing his brand of corrosive techno on the masses with a self titled EP. However, the most recent from the POV camp is something distinct, a 12” to tell these machine malcontents apart.
Kamikaze Space Programme (aka KSP and Christopher Jarman), opens the mildly titled When The Rich Wage War, It’s The Poor Who Die. For some reason KSP hadn’t shown up on my radar before, but will from now on. Following recent releases on Vanta Series and Neighbourhood, this veteran artist delivers “Tony.” A work of industrial mastery, Jarman examines the nuts and bolts of the machine. Rhythms are constructed through a series of cracked gears, clanking metal and chugging bass, a hypnotic harmony cast through a disparate range of styles.
Credit 00, of the Uncanny Valley school, takes up the mantle with a serrated work of house. Claps bend and dip, colliding as basslines bludgeon and samples echo into painful silence.
The mysterious XXX returns after the bedlam of Noorder Scannen. Here, with “I Swear Nothing Happened”, the medication seems to have been taken as the madness is minimized. A burly transaction of big stomping beats and heavy distortion, and even some wonky synth-work, but a much milder effort than his previous maniacal outing. Label boss, and well know whiskey savant, drops of piece of psychological warfare. Acid drenched, snare smeared, crack to the jaw mentalism in the misshapen form of “Concession.”
If you think you’re on stable ground, think again. Persian ends with “Don’t Deal Wid Violence.” Just like KSP, Persian is a new name to me. For more than two decades Persian has been plying his trade as a breakbeat and jungle artist, two styles I’ve little to no experience with. Nevertheless, his addition is a welcome one. Intricate beats are silkily cut, samples circling and vanishing in a series of clever tight breaks.
When The Rich Wage War, It’s The Poor Who Die is a surprising 12”. Poverty Is Violence have not just collected five cracking pieces of music, each with its own unique idea and style, but the label has also widened its scope. A heady range of sounds are explored on a compilation that grits teeth, journeys into the machine, seeks out the shadows and will go in directions few would have expected (myself included.)
When The Rich Wage War, It’s The Poor Who Die is available on Poverty Is Violence.
