Kuedo will release his first solo record since 2012 at the end of July.
Titled Assertion of a Surrounding Presence, the seven-track EP will be housed on Kuedo’s own Knives label, which debuted earlier this year with J.G. Biberkopf’s Ecologies and Jlin’s Dark Energy (an album released on Planet Mu, but A&Red by Knives). It features collaborations with Egyptrixx, Mind:Body:Fitness and Roly Porter, who previously worked with Kuedo in Vex’d.
Fans of Kuedo’s Severant album will be in luck – there’s plenty more of those intense hi-hat rushes that draw from Southern hip-hop and Chicago’s drill here (though Jlin’s violent footwork also feels like a key inspiration) – but the corners feel even sharper and the colours even more vivid. Throw in some seriously evil gamelan and a healthy dose of Ghost in the Shell worship, and you’re looking at something special. It’s also worth noting that Biberkopf’s theatrical sound design seems to be an influence on the record, suggesting a nice dynamic where Kuedo’s already bouncing off other Knives artists.
Kuedo tells us that he “felt the presence of ambient power systems” while making the record. “Planetary computation as a militarized zone. Latent potential for states, psychological and infrastructural, to destabilize, disrupt and dissolve. For such ambient presences to physically materialize and assert themselves. For known systems to become uncanny. Emergence out of complex systems. The here, the now. Cold rush. Engagement with musics that have described these concerns – 90s techstep, video game sound environments, anime soundtracks.”
The artwork is by Melbourne-based artist Joshua Petherick, who “connotes the album’s aesthetic and concept with a nod to sci-fi writer Anthony Burgess’ fictional conceit of Nadsat – a cryptic systemisation of order in a dystopian environment – in his abstract yet acutely evocative geometries”.
Assertion of a Surrounding Presence will be released on July 31 – we’re premiering opener ‘Vertical Stack’ below.
Tracklist:
1. Vertical Stack
2. Border State Collapse
3. Boundary Regulation (feat. Egyptrixx)
4. Case Type Classification
5. Eyeless Angel Intervention (feat. Mind:Body:Fitness)
6. Event Tracking Across Populated Terrain (feat. Roly Porter)
7. Cellular Perimeter
