Space Yacht’s first techno EP release, The Black Hole Vol 1, is exciting techno fans and showcases 10 creative artists hot on the scene today.
If you haven’t already heard, Space Yacht is a music collective focused on bringing the best of dance music to music fans through events, apparel, and now with the launch of the record label in 2020, they have been giving us new music. Space Yacht lassoed techno connoisseur HELLBOUND! to curate the EP and it is he who is calling this time a ‘”pivotal moment in dance music”. Making it his mission to revive the fundamental rave sounds that manifested today’s dance music scene, HELLBOUND! has swiftly established himself as a force in the American techno community.
“I believe we’re at a pivotal point in time in dance music, and it’s incredibly important for good teams to join forces and push these sounds in the states…Strength in numbers is very real. It’s been my mission over the past couple of years to really drive the techno sound in America as much as possible, so this compilation was a ton of fun to work on. It features some of my favorite up and coming acts in the space with ZERO SKIPS. Ready for the club, warehouse, or festival stage.” – HELLBOUND!
HELLBOUND! targeted techno artists for The Black Hole Vol 1 who are his contemporaries in the scene and even acted as the ultimate curator in this collection, selecting for sounds that both excite and resurrect nostalgia for the classic rave scenes of techno’s original inception. Each fast-paced, heart-racing, blast of bass and swirl of synths sits uniquely on its own throne, showcasing the multidimensional nature of the genre, while still keeping that iconic rhythm pumping and bumping throughout this buffet.
It is definitely in your best interest to listen through all 10 morsels, there were some that had me going in again and again. One such track was HELLBOUND!’s opener, ‘Beware,’ which is a great sign of what is to come and should not act at all as a deterrent. Beginning with soft opera-like vocals which are quickly overtaken by classic 90’s synths the track smacks of classic influence right off the bat. The steady iconic Techno beat inundates you with warehouse dancefloor vibes. The breaks are ethereal, letting the rhythms stalk the angelic vocals, and don’t falter on keeping things tightly enmeshed. It’s refreshing to hear the pulse of the rhythm stand alone against the breathier synths later on in the track.
Newcomer, Declan James, throws in his hat with ‘New Age Psychosis’, a thrilling techno track. Layered precisely with a delicious beat that has a tasty reverb, the build-up is designed almost like a scaffold of sound, architecturally structured so that you can feel the pulse reverberate through each element of the sounds woven in. This technique creates a creeping, seeping, sort of sensation that is like a meal for the ear. The progression ramps things up, and brings the sounds down and out, before clutching them together again. It is a fresh take on an old sound that hits the mark with every transition and turn.
Another track I particularly fancied was forseti’s ‘Go Back’. Wasting no time getting to the meaty bass, the rhythm envelopes you at the get-go, and the distorted vocal sample starts to loops setting the ominous but frenzied mood. A quick drop brings in the sharper sound samples and lurking beneath are the rising synths that suddenly give way to a break where the stripped-down beat unfurls into a textured verse. ‘Go Back’ is complex and dark, but not so moody that there isn’t something to groove to. The pulsing synths towards the end of the song blossom over and over carrying the excitement all the way to the finish line.
Check these out and more from artists like BRVMES, Barbosa, REVEL, and Thanks, I Hate on The Black Hole Vol 1 it below.
