SHALT’s Hard-Hitting Beats Are Too Deviant To Dance To

The British producer’s EP is coming on The Astral Plane.

December 16, 2015

"No frills, no bullshit" music resource The Astral Plane have earned a reputation as one of the most dependable resources on the frontline of experimental club music, via their blog, mix series, and compilation releases. In 2016, they're taking it to another level with their debut solo release, coming courtesy of northern English, Switzerland-based producer SHALT.

The four-track EP, titled Acheron, is thrilling in its lurches and ripples, too melodic and rhythmic to be noise, too prickly and unpredictable to be labeled straight-up dance music. It's best suited to headphone listening, where you can really get pulled into its narrative—which, as SHALT explained to The FADER over email, is deeply introspective and a little bit sci-fi. "[The EP] is concerned with the idea of prolonging individual lives by technological/scientific means, and looking at the effects that it would have," the producer wrote. "The ideas around this are sourced from a series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson, in which lives are extended to two/three centuries. The song 'Acheron' looks at the effects of this increase in longevity on the sense of self and of being human; for instance, at what point do we cross a line where enabling humans to live ever longer is no longer 'natural'?"

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These are big questions with no easy answers—but hit play on the title track (which you made have first heard in KABLAM's FADER Mix) below, and let it unfurl into your headphones while you think about it. The Astral Plane will release Acheron in January 2016.

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SHALT’s Hard-Hitting Beats Are Too Deviant To Dance To