We first featured Blak Night last year with his ‘Hyde’ EP which we thought was one of the most original pieces of caustic electronic music we’d heard all year.
Dealing in a genre that’s becoming saturated with copycats and ‘anything goes’ mentalities, his debut EP, ‘Hyde’ brought a much needed sense of flair, originality and technical prowess that could stand up alongside established acts like SebstiAn, Proxy and Boys Noize.
The album consists of eight remixes for an eclectic range of artists including Rolo Tomassi, Jamie Grind, run,WALK!, Eleven Tigers, Autodidakt, Kerouac and Thunderskank.
We have to admit that we’ve not heard of many of the names, but we’ll just judge the whole thing from what is in front of us rather than what has come before.
The album starts on steady ground with ‘Verisionen’ – the sort of track that wouldn’t sound out of place on Friday The 13th or the Candy-man – it has a real dark and demonic vibe and is the perfect start for his new material, it’s incredibly haunting, as you hear feint noises of impending doom, crackles of thunder and the pita patter of rain drops.
‘Tongue In Chiq’ continues the deranged and dark vibes, but ups the anti somewhat from the opening, acoustic strings wale out over corse white noise, then the beat drops, very much a homage to early SebastiAn – just the way we like it.
It’s like your in a musical nightmare, but you can’t fault it for originality. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever really heard before.
Blak Night drops some particularly harsh electro for the ‘Gutter’ it’s hard, glitchy and full of distortion, but eventually transforms into a danceable piece of electro – but be warned for many it will probably be a bit too much. You could even called nu-wave gabba.
‘Stableface’ is the eye of the storm, a more subdued piece of glitch electro, it still packs a punch but the whole thing is reined in somewhat, probably our favourite. Imagine Boy’s Noise throwing his music into a food-blender and your someway to understanding.
Blak Night could certainly turn his talents to sound tracks, the imaginary of horror films would be a perfect match for his music, we wouldn’t be surprised if he is a massive horror film fan. Who ever comes up with tracks like ‘Peekay’ has stared evil in the face and laughed at it.
Blak Nite explores many types of beats, rhythms and textures throughout the album and ‘Our Fathers’ seems to page respect to the old grunge rock of the early 90’s, but with a 21st century lick of paint.
The overall aestetic of Blak Nite might be a bit too much to take for many, but that’s half the fun, you need to leave your pre-conceptions and go in with an open mind, there aren’t any pop hooks, nor are there many warm melodies – it’s unforgiving, intense, unnerving and overpowering, but when it works it really works and ‘Redemption’s is a case in point. Certainly the standout track of the album.
Rather than going for the obvious Blak Nite finishes the album with the introvert and reflective ‘Without You’ you can hear rain drops in the background and echoes of bass and piano stabs which show a calmer side of the Dark Knight of electro.
There’s no doubt that this album with frighten the life out of many, the best way for us to explain quite how leftfield it is imagine Boy’s Noise in a mental asylum. Making music from the inspiration of the truly insane. We think it’s a breathe of fresh air, it’s by no means perfect, but in time Blak Nite will find a home for demonic music. There’s no doubt he has bags of talent, but it might just be too much for some.
HBF Rating 8/10
The album will be available on all major download stores and a limited pressing of 250 12″ vinyls in June. Anyone who purchases the vinyl will also get two bomus remixes of Civilian and We Are Altered.
Grab a couple of freebies below.
Blak Nite – Versionen
[podcast]http://www.mediafire.com/file/3jeecccw53tfe67/TTR014-Versionen.mp3[/podcast]
Download here.
Blak Nite – Gutter (Thunderskank)
[podcast]http://www.mediafire.com/file/h1ej63j1lyyrp8z/TTR014-Gutter.mp3[/podcast]
Download here.
