R4VER

Sweeping through disparate signals to find a secure connection, Origin Peoples make contact with cyberpunk auteur JAK3 in the depths of the Pennsylvania underground. Operating on the frontline of a sonic warzone, surrounded by charred buildings and rusted skyscrapers, the producer translates the dystopian urban environment into blackened hybrids of hip-hop, Detroit sludge and radioactive techno. 


New EP 'R4VER' continues in the mode of previous transmission 'Moonlight Radiation', with the producer's divergent influences drawn together and pulled apart across six mutant compositions which shun conventional song structure. 'Finally, I'm Free' begins life in a cinematic swell of queasy synths, gradually collapsing around gritty drum machines until a blast of static diverts the track into an underworld of armored muscle cars and fractured beats. The distorted sub-bass and gated waveforms of 'Lies' continue our descent into chaos, swelling the speakers until the abstracted trap idents are our only remaining reference. 'Too True' assaults our senses with suffocating pads, cocked firearms and benzoed rave breaks, while B-side opener 'Chase The Sun' sandwiches a Last Poets vocal between blown out hip hop and the retooled UK hardcore which grows in intensity across the last two tracks. On 'My Blood, My Soul' JAK3 pushes rave rhythm and hip hop vocal way into the red, gets thrown out of the club and stumbles into free party euphoria somewhere down the street. Appropriately, 'Raverboy', a collaborative cut with Waistdeep Clique colleagues Agnarkea & Big Up Menace X, closes the set with a message of unity and togetherness, standing against the CJA 1994 with a heart-aching refrain and eventual drop into jungle intensity. JAK3's world may be a broken dystopia, smoked out and smudged with distortion, but it still has a dance floor, and 'R4VER' is all the survival training you need.

As a member of the sprawling Waistdeep Clique, JAK3 belongs to a new generation of producers, raised by the internet and informed by the immediate risk of societal collapse. Embracing the dystopian influence of late 20th century sci-fi, as well as the recent Memphis rap revival, JAK3 and his contemporaries update the cyberpunk aesthetic for the urban environment, delivering a muscular and aggressive soundtrack for an all too possible future. Turning his Hanover home into a creative hub, the young producer has facilitated a number of collaborations within the scene, not least the scene-defining 'Kwantum Entanglement' with Calsutmoran and Agnarkea. All the while, JAK3 sinks deeper into his own sonic universe, constantly honing his own production approach. Caked in a thick patina of distortion, characterised by rumbling sub bass, urban rhythms and erratic structures, JAK3's compositions reflect the world around him - unstable, reliant on flawed technology and gradually rolling towards chaos. Referential but ultimately radical, these sounds are just the first signpost to JAK3's musical potential.