SlugoS — Heretical Subversion
Written on 3 July 2023 by Andrijan Apostoloski
SlugoS delivers a dark atmospheric and driving techno album on German Sacred Court, imprint label run by SNTS. The LP format is rarely exploited by producers nowadays, but he luckily gets back to it and delivers a beautifully crafted album that evolves and brings a diverse set of sounds from start to end.
Starting with the intro Sheol’s Covenant, the atmosphere is set and we get a glimpse of the sound that the journey will uphold – the sample vocals are coated in depths of darkness alongside spices of rhythmic power by the poly-metric kicks.
SlugoS definitely has a signature sound, his kicks are like nobody else in the scene and the way he sets his often polymetric rhythms is diverse and never sounds like it’s repeating. In the second track Heretical Subversion you will get introduced to the philosophy and heavyweightness of his powerful beats, what SlugoS as a producer stands for is very evident in the track. As I said, the beat is powerful, driving and perfect for the universe he’s painting. The percussion alongside the kick are shaped in such a way that nothing dominates, but everything is equally there to build this energy that further along continues to develop the darkness that’s set. As a machine of power beyond what humans are capable of, resembling a Swiss watch or perhaps Japanese car engines – the production is characterised by precision and arrangements of the elements like nobody else. After the second part of the track and the breakdown begins, the reese synth that’s introduced there and only exclusively appears to break all of your expectations brings the track into a more hyped and powerful variant of what was before.
The following 22.2.22 is such a blast. The kicks blaring throughout, and that perfect moment that some of my favourite producers in techno have mastered – the moment when they introduce the hi-hats. To some it may sound like a very simple thing to do, but if you’ve been introduced slightliest to the production world – such precision and confidence in bringing elements comes with lots of experience, lots of hours spent and invested behind the studio. The claps that come very soon after follow a 4/4 pattern that is reminiscent of tunes back in the early 00s, back when artists like DJ Rush were at their hardest and purest peaks and people wanted it the rawest. Despite me pin-pointing at elements separately, that really doesn’t matter when you’re going to experience this tune – either at home by having a mental therapy listening to this album, or by chance someone playing this melter on the dance-floor and sound-systems it’s designed to be best at.
The atmospheric element is huge throughout and the darkness that shines in all of the tracks reminds me of dark ambient soundscapes from the likes of Lustmord and Robert Rich. The huge, “lazy” but black sounds on Bogotá Distrito Capital takes the responsibility of an album release very seriously, it breaks down the dance-floor oriented power-smashers with this emotional piece that will put you in the depths of your thoughts, and will put your body on auto-pilot as the track progresses: the synths, the percussions and breaks and that rhythm of his.
And as every good album in existence, the way it dives into all kinds of emotions and moods is present in this LP throughout. After that emotional dive, we’re back at something that SlugoS is perhaps most known for – his polymetric rhythms and the masterful combination of everything that follows. The driving kicks on Eyes Wide Open really blast with full energy, imagine playing this tune driving 180-200 km/h on a highway – in your eyes you will only see all your obstacles, everything that’s really affecting you negatively lose its power, and the track will imprint a signature onto your mind that you will forever remember – a superpower that certain tracks possess when they’re played at the right time and place. Shivering cold, but in the depth of the core a lava-hot power.
Sapphire’s synths at the start gave me some butterflies – the shape and colour of their sound is something completely new in this album so far, they’re bright but hypnotised by these repetitive techno elements that give the whole sound picture an bizarrely dark, twisted but ever-lasting vibe. I could fucking dance to this for hours, I could give it all to this track and let it guide me through what I’m always seeking when going on raves.
I can’t describe it, these sorts of rhythms aren’t exclusive to him as whole styles and directions in techno also use them, but the way SlugoS does it is radiating differently and I can yell “That’s a Slugos track!” just because of this even in my sleep. I love that, because if I find myself liking somebody’s sound signature, I am hooked and always waiting, always hungry for more. For myself personally, that’s what good artists and producers have – their own blend of reality that resonates in their sound. Violence in Motion by itself is wicked, it goes and goes only to blast these metallic short stabs that tingle my techno-soul.
On Blackout we’re introduced with a utilitarian groove that bangs, evolves and even changes from poly-metric to 4/4 while the track progresses. It’s very hypnotic and the soundscape is deep with the dark percussions that follow the beat playing around with the whole background that consists of these elements that simply when you close your eyes take you to another kinda world. As the breakdown starts and slowly everything but these background elements are left to play, the moment that everything starts again has evolved very much, the metallic kind of synth now dominates with more confidence and power, and it seems like the kicks and whole beat got back with more power than ever.
The last track Crawl Out Of The Sewer has these delayed 4/4 kicks that go throughout, a very interesting choice that works well, but it’s not until the hi-hats are brought into action that you understand something is going to build up, and you have no idea what that’s going to be. Like, the pressure that’s building up is very serious and the industrial nature of the rhythm blends along very nicely with all of the elements and his soundscape. This track does not build up to a cheap fake transition – but when the breakdown happens it happens slowly – adding to the tension that’s going on. Slowly after putting things to a nearly calm state, he brings back the track and goes full madman mode with these cymbals in a 4/4 pattern like the claps on that track before. After that moment, the track evolves by shifting diversely to its several states, and continues to bring pressure, tension and blacker depths as it goes. This one is more listener and mind-melting oriented than it is a dance-floor weapon like some of the tracks before, and that’s a good thing, because when you’re listening to the whole LP from start to end – it sure makes perfect sense and is a brilliant way to sign out after having 40 minutes of techno magic done in his own distinctive way.
I was very happy when I found out that Heretical Subversion is going to be an album, as I’m discovering techno myself and exploring the roots of late 90s and early 00s – more specifically Speedy J as an example with his albums, I find that most of the scene and releases that are coming out follow that 4-5 track EP format, and whilst those have a different purpose and philosophy, I believe an artist can best express himself to a much more refined and detailed way when he has plenty of time and he doesn’t follow that philosophy that all tunes are first built for the dance-floor, but he gives his purest expression and by doing that he completely dominates and overthrows the question if these tunes are to be played somewhere… in a club, in a rave, on a dance-floor… you know? What would happen?
With this album, comparison to anything that’s out there wouldn’t make any sense. Like Speedy J’s Loudboxer LP was such an eye-opener for me, SlugoS gifted me the same enjoyable experience that throughout the tracks put me in a deeper kind of mind-state, the hypnotic element that very few can mix with hard and driving beats, especially like his. As when music freaks like me, maybe you and dozen of others don’t seek the release to be only friendly or powerful on the dance-floor, we seek a journey that makes perfect sense for us from the beginning to the end – as it speaks directly to our souls, but also without any trouble can take over our bodies and do what the best techno out there does.
I believe Heretical Subversion will age like any proper techno does – timeless, and better as time goes by. It’s dark and not particularly easy to listen to each time you play, you need to be in the mood to give yourself fully to the experience – but once again what release that’s serious in the expression doesn’t require this? What I wanna say is that if you’re perhaps looking for some strict-banger tunes on a weekend that you and all of your friends can dance to without any struggle, this is definitely NOT it. What this is is a release that holds power of the real depths of the darkness – it is patient and sometimes even slow, it is completely hypnotic and as a contrast to everything, it’s accompanied by rhythms made by one of the most prolific artists coming from the contemporary hard techno scene.
