Loveless EP [CLIPP220] By XO-5 & Cyberian Relic

Newcomers XO-5 and Cyberian Relic emerge from the Russian cities of Ivanovo and Nadym with a hot mix of Lo-Fi House and Leftfield Ambient, alongside touches of Disco and Phonk, to form an understated Rave Sound that works just as easily fucked up and glued to Mario Cart YouTubee-esque visitations of dance music as it does renegade funk siren beckoning a unseen & unknown Eastern bloc TikTok generation onto their home bassment dancefloors. 

From the distorted thump, windy pads, squelchy TB-303, and muffled vocal of the EP’s joint artist opener “Loveless”, to overdriven bells, trap house chug, and drilling bassline of Cyberian Relic solo effort “Fading”, with its introspective lead line reminiscent of Closer Musik’s seminal 2002 cut “Maria” - fyi a compliment of the highest order (in this humble writers opinion anyway!) Back to the artist combo and 135BPM clanging onslaught of “Night Caprise” - a thrilling crank of full frontal house (albeit on the harder edge) with rubbery bassline and looping vocal giving way to massive breakbeat breakdowns and sure to have skulls moving out of their usual back of the crowd nodding orbits into hearty headbang territory. EP ender  “I Was Never Around” finds XO-5 on their own rounding out the selection in grand fashion: all big chords and big emotions. A percussive belting. Tweaked out vocals, and white noise house beats. Wherever they reside, we love to discover a duo of artists pushing their personal boundaries, upping each others ante’s and creating techno magic from locations often overlooked in our New World Order. In a time and space that has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and where human experience is a simulation of reality, we are thrilled to receive these coded transmissions coming deep from the underground of this simulacrum. Far from Loveless.