Premiere: Gorgonn ‘Abyss’

Gorgonn will release a new album, ‘Six Paths’, via SVBKVLT this month. Listen to the opening track, ‘Abyss’, below. 

The Berlin-based, Japanese producer’s 10-track solo album for the UK-via-Shanghai label builds on his busy catalogue of “sci-fi steppas": a fierce combo of deep industrial dub, noise, techno and no wave. He’s previously collaborated with the likes of The Bug (as part of G36, and as his go-to sound engineer), JK Flesh (on the album ‘Disintegration Dubs’),  Hype Williams,  DJ Scotch Egg, Bo Ningen's Taigen Kawabe, and Kiki Hitomi. To say he knows his way around electronic music’s gnarliest depths would be an understatement. 

On ‘Six Paths’, Gorgon strikes out alone, exploring concepts related to Japanese Buddhism and the “six paths” one may end up being sent down after death, depending on how much karma they accumulated in life. As the album’s press text explains: “A being might end up in the world of humans, animals, demigods, or celestials, but it's also possible to end up reborn as a pitiable hungry ghost, doomed to an existence of insatiable desire, or even worse - be sent to hell, or jigoku.”

With these ideas serving as a thematic foundation, Gorgon harnesses depth-charge distortion, enveloping bass weight and colossal drums to craft an album that lunges, lurches and howls like a beast. It’s heavy, dark and often overwhelming, but none of that detracts from how sharp these tracks are: distant howls of footwork, drum & bass, EBM and dancehall resonate, cutting through the noise to create a listening experience that rewards as much as it punishes. 

‘Six Paths’ will be released on 31st January. Pre-order it here.