The Answer Is In The Beat

x.nte & Elevation: Singularity Fallout (Deathbysheep, 2022) + x.nte: Aggressive Stereo Sound (Kitty On Fire, 2022)

June 20, 2022 at 3:03 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Both x.nte and Elevation have maintained the chaotic, anarchist spirit of breakcore while introducing new elements, and for that they receive a lot of love around these parts. Singularity Fallout is 20 minutes of concentrated innovation, with each artist providing 2 solo tracks in addition to 2 collaborations between both of them. Both of the collaborative tracks brilliantly patch together drifting melodies and cacophonous, rapidfire breaks and noise bursts, ending up with some of the most broken, destructive music that still can be tied to the lineage of jungle and hip-hop. As jumbled and nonlinear as their music is, I find it soothing as well as stimulating all at once. x.nte’s “Wake Up” has a bit more of a consistent rhythm, and again it mixes a hyper tempo and shouted samples with soft, calming pads. There’s also opera vocals and ragga-jungle samples, and they make a strange sort of sense existing in the same track. The Elevation tracks include one that riffs on the Lyn Collins “bad sister” sample, letting its mind wander and throwing in a few harder breaks, but mostly keeping it steady and reflective.

The newest x.nte solo album is another brilliant collection of explosive tracks held together by the artist’s unique sense of logic. The breaks are often fast, abrasive blurs with airtight edits, yet they can still seem splattered and uncontrolled. Occasionally there’s some structural framing to the tracks in regards to which sections have more aggressive kick drums or other intense elements, but this is still far from DJ-friendly. Even the most mellow and transcendent track (“hearts”) isn’t afraid to throw in some lacerating noise-breaks. “rebirth” is simply a stunning expression of an aggressive moment, reflecting on a tense encounter and just bursting forth with concentrated fury. Yet this music never registers as strictly negative and joyless, the mixture of emotions is what keeps it engaging. It might be too random or discordant for a lot of people, but I get it entirely. Both x.nte & Elevation are true visionaries of the current breakcore scene.