Onism
With a penchant for biting 303 lines and mashed up breakbeats, Onism crafts frantic, energetic acid-techno and rave music not out of place in a dark, abandoned warehouse.
Acid, jungle and various techno influences can all being heard in each pounding dancefloor oriented track, created using synthesisers, drum machines and samplers.
Duncan's live hardware set up heavily incorporates improvisation and gritty breakbeats, mixed with hammering kick drums to drive on the momentum of the tracks, with processed vocal samples and warped bass to fatten out the sound.
Having self released various tracks individually on Soundcloud over the past few years; most notably been The Last and Six O'clock in a Field With Some Horses, Duncan has been operating under the radar during which he was studying Sound Design in Brighton, but after various performances at Northern Electric Festival, Northern Exposure & Kaneda, we are incredibly delighted to be able to announce Onism's debut EP Ego Melt, due for release on Friday 13th February.
ONISM - EGO MELT
Ego Melt opens with Duncan demonstrating his talent in sound design. The calm before the storm, layers rise and fall before the sirens wail and the track breathes. The swell returns and Loleatta screams in anxious euphoria. This one is all about about the 303 and the ecstatic vocal, this is by no means all he has to offer within his library of sounds, as Ego Melt showcases. If you've ever seen Onism play live, you know it's constant energy but here he nails the movement of electronic dance music, and club dynamics, as the layers build and the waves crash incessantly before breathing.
These tracks sit firmly within the acid techno field of his arsenal. A cacophony of 303 sequences that makes you want to flail your limbs around in ecstasy and raise your arms aloft as the waves swell before the bangs and booms come back in. The 303 master gets the most out of this machine from the raucous distorted aggression to the cleaner and more discreet, dependent on the progression of the track. This is evidenced in the Dragged Down perfectly.
Crush sees mighty kick drums and a frenetic percussion groove lead into a stacked, impudent 303 layers that zig-zag in and out. Overhead, spacious atmospheric pads slip in and out of focus as cowbells and off-beat high hats join the rhythmic landscape. Chopped and soulful vocal samples are added alongside a more heavily manipulated sample in a manner reminiscent of the 90’s dance classics of yore, this is authentic acid firmly rooted in the cannon of absolute bangers.
Flowing seemlessly from Crush, Acid Rat sets out it's stall straight away; a huge kick and zingy hi-hats precede a relentless cavalcade of bass lines that are pure, squelchy acid heaven. The track builds and progresses in a deeply satisfying manner through some very well crafted drops, Duncan again showcasing his understanding of dynamics of his genre, as Acid Rat rolls out in a conveniently minimal fashion and the journey comes to an end.
