Listen to a new FADER Mix by Cry (Kilbourne and Relaxer)

Prepare your speakers.

Two of electronic and hardcore’s most audacious artists — Kilbourne (Ashe Kilbourne) and Relaxer (Daniel Martin-McCormick) — are colliding as a new duo, Cry, that combines the thrash of a noise show with the bleary delirium of a techno set. Kilbourne, the founder of New York label and party Hammerhead, has taken her hardcore, often high BPM soundscapes around the world, playing at clubs like Tresor and Defqon.1. Relaxer, the co-founder of essential experimental and electronic music festival Dripping, has become a global node connecting punk and electronic, performing everywhere from Sustain Release to Berghain and Unsound.

In July, the duo released their first project as Cry, AD 140, which Martin-McCormick shares was made “in part because there was something we wanted to hear that no one else was doing.” The project is an energetic release, all awe, terror, screams, and bass.

Their FADER Mix is all assembled from “live recordings, practice tapes and studio recordings, as well as some of our solo works, collab jams and even our first musical encounter — Ashe’s remix of my Relaxer track ‘Licking.’” It sounds like a transmission from a dusty garage, blanketed in synth distortion, expressively hoarse vocals, and rarely dips from its quickened BPM sprint.

Listen to Cry’s FADER Mix on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, and Youtube. Check out its tracklist and an interview with the duo below.

Cry - “Untitled (live 2026)”
Cry - “Like Fat Across Meat”
Cry - “He’s a Nice Man (live 2026)”
Cry - “Jie (Practice tape, 2024)”
Relaxer - “Untitled (live 2026)”
Kilbourne & Pamela_ and her sons - “Untitled (2023)”
Cry - “Chlorophyl (Practice tape, 2026)”
Cry - “Summer”
Cry - “Untitled (live 2026)”
Relaxer - “Licking (Kilbourne Remix)”
Cry - “Leash”
Cry - “Leach”
Cry - “Leach (live 2026)”
Cry - “Sapling Youth”

The FADER: What’s the first set you ever played?

Ashe Kilbourne (Kilbourne): Cry played our first set in April 2025 at a Dripping night in New York, at the club Nowadays. We set up in the center of the room, with the crowd on all sides.
Daniel Martin-McCormick (Relaxer): Our first song was a long instrumental build up before the vocals came in. When we got on the mic, no one knew it was coming and the room went crazy.

What DJs or artists inspire you?

Daniel Martin-McCormick: Many. Jeff Mills - Live at Liquid Room Tokyo for its kinetic ferocity. E-Man, Takaaki Itoh, Huggy Bear, Nkisi, Void, each other.

How has your local scene shaped your music?

Daniel Martin-McCormick: In too many ways to count. We’ve both lived in NY for many years and are immersed in the electronic music subculture. We each throw our own events - Dripping and Hammerhead - that push our personal visions of what music can be. And there are many artists around us who are doing great work we find inspiring.

What’s the most memorable set you’ve ever played, DJing or otherwise?

Daniel Martin-McCormick: We just played a renegade party in an abandoned muddy cave next to an Amtrak train line.

What excites you about the future of live music and night life?

Ashe Kilbourne: Somewhere, away from the centers of club culture, someone right now is cooking up some insane, innovative and unyielding music that many will initially decry as unlistenable, But through the burning clarity of their vision, they will persevere and bring something ultimately transformative and new to the table that, in the end, will feel like a historical inevitability.

What music trend needs to die?

Ashe Kilbourne: I was in a deep scroll hole this weekend sending Daniel hardtechno reels and stories announcing the reels, shirtless goofs playing infinite fake rawstyle drops into papa roach schranz-lite captured in perfect lighting from nine angles. It’s easy to ogle and hate on but it’s such a robust ecosystem at this point, wishing it would die seems misplaced.

Daniel Martin-McCormick: All trends die by nature, so there’s no need to rush the process along.

Where did you record the mix? Describe your surroundings.

Daniel Martin-McCormick: We recorded it at Ashe’s apartment in Crown Heights in between cooking a delicious dinner and watching The Blair Witch Project.

Beyond music, what's an interest you have that may surprise people?

Ashe Kilbourne: I go birding. Daniel is still looking for a hobby.