You may have heard a piece of this one already. Ruksby’s ‘Lex Talionis’ was our premiere from it, and it sits at track seven.
‘Forest Voltage’ runs to twelve tracks on LES.promo and is out now. Electro, electropunk and breakbeat, contributors scattered across a handful of countries, and a concept built entirely around what a forest gets up to after dark once there is nobody left to complain about the volume.
We enter the forest alongside Volumate, whose track ‘Viking’ really sets the bar high for the remaining eleven tracks. Heavy breakbeat action alongside tribal chanting and cultish percussion makes for a very rousing introduction to the compilation. Easy to imagine sitting among tribal Norse folk as they prepare for ritual.
Things take an altogether more violent turn next as electro bass pioneer GET OFF ALL SAINTS spills ‘CHECK M8’ all down the front of your t-shirt. Glitching synth croaks sit alongside a filthy bassline and choppy vocals; listen out for the smashing glass and cry of “FUCK” which is one way to execute a breakdown before you right hook your listener with distorted low end.
Jawbreaker! of the Lifted Index Collective is on track three duty with ‘Hectic Time’. Describing himself as an electropunk and neurobreak producer seems accurate. Electric guitars grind right through this break-laden production alongside hardcore style vocals that almost take on an MC vibe thanks to the cadence of their delivery.
Xallaps and LES.promo label head Dacent pile up next for the breaks and bass number, ‘TechnoPunk’. Thankfully the energy stays high thanks to skittering top end percs alongside heavily distorted vocals and a guttural bottom end. The second half of this track is absolute fire.
Dubstep echoes through the canopies next as MOST WANTED take control with ‘SENSUALIZANDO’. The duo deliver a track that amalgamates the dubstep and breakbeat genres perfectly, thumping low end being the order of the day as one might expect.
Partopella brings us to the compilation’s mid-point with electro excursion ‘voice modul not found’. The track opens with a solid electro drum pattern and simple futuristic synth progression, before a tension-building breakdown segues in a devilish sub bass and minor key string pads for the ultimate in dystopian electro vibes.
Our pal Ruksby goes next, and we have covered that one in full already, so we’ll jump forward to the following track, ‘What Do You Think’ by HYDROSPHERA; which offers up a further serving of heavy electro that morphs into a heaving techno beast from the second minute onwards.
The forest takes on an industrial feel next, drawing heavily on the compilation’s voltage for the galvanizing electropunk cut ‘E O TREM’ by HAPPYFACE that aims its focus at the lower end of the frequency spectrum alongside a lurching breakbeat.
‘NEON RIOT’ certainly offers a touch of Blade Runner to proceedings as OTEC takes the speakers over. A futuristic breakbeat track straight out of the lower levels of Mega-City One alongside a malfunctioning android.
The penultimate track ‘system’ from killdastreak is a straight up shard of searing electro breaks fired from a modded nail gun straight into your eardrums. “I be doin’ bangin’”, fucking right you are mate.
We close with Resonaid and the conspicuously titled ‘Safety Always Off’. Grime-y vocal cuts pierce the mix alongside a superb dub siren and some frankly obscene bass that encouraged an increase in the volume of our under-desk office subwoofer here at Waveform HQ. Shinbone shattering shit.
Grab it on Bandcamp.