So, another TMT buddy just reviewed Shanghai Den’s EP1 (TMT Review) — YAY!! — but anyone who’s been there knows that the real Shanghai den is none other than the nefarious, burned-out bomb: Shelter. Jesus, is that place great. You can barely enter the men’s bathroom without falling into a K-hole. S L V was both conceived and born in said den, even sounds like it: uneven reverb, literally sub bass, the crackling of frayed electric nerves audible beneath a layer of blast-proof concrete, the aerosolized remnants of all them Hyperdub dudes who’ve been passing through. The pen-pal duo of currently-Tokyo-based Hamacide and UK transplant Downstate just released their second, Moss Temple, a kaleidoscopic 5-track pastiche of footwork for those whose feet aren’t working right, anyway. It’s a big departure from their last one, Dagger, which itself was a long step away from the duo’s first outing, “Killers,” a must-listen if you’re nostalgic for that mid-’00s mixtape-era Wayne (as heard from the bottom of the ocean). The only unifying thread is the constant schizophrenia, I guess. And the bass.
Moss Temple officially dropped on August 4 via Shanghai’s #1 purveyor of forward-moving sounds, SVBKVLT. You can download it, of course, but my advice would be to book yourself a one-way ticket to the Capital of the Future. Scratcha’s already on board. We’ll all be waiting for you there, but without cell reception, so keep your ears peeled for the trail of broken referents.
• S L V: https://soundcloud.com/some-late-visitor
• SVBKVLT: https://soundcloud.com/svbkvlt
• The Shelter: https://www.facebook.com/sheltershanghai
More about: S L V
