Premiere // Ontal on 3TH

3TH return with The Throbbing City, a new compilation of electro- and techno-oddities. The minds behind 3TH – Ascion, D. Carbone and Lucindo Cutolo – have released a sequence of impressive obscurantist 12"s and cassettes over the past few years. Like many strains of contemporary dance music, their aesthetic dwells in the darker shadows of the club. Their focus is not so much on the 'woo!'s and 'yeah!'s of carefree party music, but on techno's psychic intensity: its capacity for nightmarish hallucinations and bad trips.

The same could be said for Ontal: a name I always thought of as a truncation of 'ontology of the brutal'. Their first ever EP, 'Output', still remains one of the most menacing records I own. Their sound has a pure, volatile, sadomasochistic chic that has always impressed me. Though I confess I can only handle their experimental excess in moderation.

Listen below for an exclusive stream of Ontal's ‘Civil Defense Siren’, the closing track of the compilation, and the nastiest of the lot.

• Published
• Dec 5, 2017

• Credits
• Words by Georgie_McVicar