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Vasundhara // Drøp

Label: Aboretum
Format: 12”/Digital
Release Date: 23/03/14

Sound-designer is perhaps a more apt title than producer for Berlin based Giuseppe Bifulco, aka Drøp. His productions are constructed with a stunning level of attention to detail, keeping a constant stream of subtle variations throughout his tracks, giving them a depth and staying power often lacking amongst his contemporaries. His latest EP, ‘Vasundhara’, marks the first release on Aboretum; a 2012 founded project also based in Berlin, whose principle focus has been event hosting until now.

The release is densely layered; thick, grinding bass, surges of sawmill noise and booming, apocalyptic hits common throughout. Given how compact and invasive the tracks can feel, Bifulco’s use of silence becomes all the more effective. ‘Epileptic Heritage’ works patiently into a solid march across three minutes, building up pulses of static and unsettling drones. A sudden, sharp cut to silence leaves the listener suspended in space for a moment, before ominous blasts of low-end aggressively thrust you back into consciousness.

In other instances restraint is exercised differently. Shamanic drums build steadily across ‘Erratic Ritual’, filtered static contrasting with the track’s comparatively organic foundations. The same interplay between natural and synthesised, mechanical sounds runs through ‘Vasundhara’. Sharp glitches twitch around chilling atmospheres, like the dull humming of a decrepit freezer. Cutting through these is the regimented thud of skin-drums we have become accustomed to throughout the release.

Closing the EP is a driving recast of ’Epileptic Heritage’ by Italian duo Dadub. The remix follows a more conventional path to the original, adhering to the signature sound Dadub have carefully refined for themselves. There are numerous traits shared between the two acts which is perhaps what makes the remix so well fitted; Dadub turning Bifulco’s oddball percussion into a faltering assembly of tribal polyryhthms beneath brooding, vapourous drones.

• Published
• Mar 26, 2014

• Credits
• Words by Theo Darton-Moore