Coming from the pulsating London underground is an elusive collective known as Anti-Social Kultur England, who harbor some of the more notorious and mysterious noise conjurers. From hard pulsing gabber beats to whirling occult noisescapes, there’s a lot to offer from these anti-socialites.
The latest offering under the English Kultural banner are two splits. One from DJ WRZN and TKN VK and the other from A.B.V and ODINTYR. Two distinct releases that will give you a taste of trve English Kulture.
DJ WRZN/TKN VK
Starting out with 3 heavy hitters from DJ WRZN, he’s able to produce these pulsing beats and noisy ambiance, with some dark, blasphemous samples of satanic pleasures that are mixed in with the swirling, hypnotic synths that is only excelled more when stuck in a mind altering designer drug binge in some dank underground club. These tracks really get the imagination flowing for me, and that noisy, dark trance style really gets the blood flowing for me as well.
TKN VK hits us with 3 more hard gabber style tracks, that also lean into the blasphemous samples and noisy nature as the previous 3. These are hard hitting and unrelenting, barely letting you breath with how fast the best hits you and how claustrophobic the production feels. These tracks are a lot heavier than DJ WRZN, and when put all together, they really compliment each other and they’re able to create this real twisted party atmosphere. I did prefer DJ WRZN’s tracks a bit more for the more melodic and laid back approach but TKN VK truly captures that hectic claustrophobic feeling of a hellish club. Highly recommend this release.
ODINTYR/A.B.V
ODINTYR hits us with two strange tracks. The first titled Fires Of Creation has an interesting approach. Noisy drums hammering away with these growling black metal style vocals slurring out words as the synths slowly become more and more deranged as the track passes on. It feels more like a traditional techno track on the following track at first, only with some noise on the bass and synths. There are some vocal samples on this one, but they’re distorted and high pitched. They do remind me of old-school house music vocals if they were lost in a dream. This track also devolves and becomes harsher and harsher with the same repeating beat capturing you in its hypnotic trance.
A.B.V hits us with a 14 minute power electronic attack. Harsh noise, fast techno beats and some harsh vocals mixed in to create some intense wall of sound at the beginning. Once past that small sample break, the beat picks up going back into this dark hardstyle rave beat that continues on for a good portion of the track. Add that with some swirling haze and a harsh production style, you really get this memorable and impactful track that ends in such a heavy and dark track with distorted vocals wailing away to close it all out.
While my knowledge of power electronics and harsh, dark electronica grows, Anti-Social Kultur England really lays it down heavy with these style of releases and to me has such a great and approachable take on it that I find myself getting deeper and deeper into this world. The ODINTYR and A.B.V split is definitely my favorite out of the two, but they’re both worth mentioning and giving a listen as they’re both unique experiences in of themselves. Any fan of noise, dance, and power electronics will find themselves walking away from this truly satisfied as well as fans of the noisier side of black metal, if they’re willing to adventure out of that comfort zone.