V/A
Vuota Beatitudine

A polymathic affair spanning the broadest musical bandwidth, French outlet Lowlife Cartel resurface with ‘Vuota Beatitudine’ - a fresh 8-track VA extrapolating their eclectic approach to contagious effect.

Draped in surreally murky cover art courtesy of Paris-based artist Léa Bouton alias Absolemabsoluxe / graphic design by Metaphore Collectif affiliate Nicolas Guillerminet, this new release features contributors from distinct mental and geographical regions alike: French-American chopped-and-screwed shock outfit HERNVNDEZ ft. MXSTVH, a hi-tech DnB / raging electro crossover from Mexican producer Jegsaha, BFDM & Tresor alum Jean Redondo on duty, junglistic jazz stunts by Chicago’s KSETDEX, German ambient voodooist Lorica, spectral post-indus from PRESENTE, Italian vibist Alec Pace up with a ragga-informed vengeance and Memphis-via-Mexico style slowed-’n-throwed madness from MVRKMVCHINX.

Lovers of Southern lo-fi rap narratives will find in both HERNVNDEZ ft. MXSTVH 'Artes Oscuras' and MVRKMVCHINX ‘Shutter' the kind of lo-slung gangsta heat to wake up both grillz-teethed zombies and have these gold-felloed Cadillacs’ afterburners flaring. Hailing from the Mexican capital city, Jegsaha fires off a barrage of breaks-laden fire, processed vox menace and frantic bass onslaughts that go straight for the jugular. Fragmenting the groove down to molecular abstraction, Redondo treats us to a mischievous hybrid of ghetto-tech’y jack and discombobulated post-pop experiment with ‘You!’, whereas US producer KSETDEX welds a smokey jazz piano onto a muscular UK bass chassis on the addictive ‘Gemini’.

Flip it over and there’s Frankfurt-based producer Lorica dishing out a hypnotic slice of atmospheric electronics, both immersively brooding and unimpeachably uplifting in equal measure. ‘Vuota Beatitudine’, the track that gives its title to the EP, works a distinctively paradoxical strain of rattling floor rhythms and zero-G escapology, in limbo betwixt heaven and hell. Conjuring up an infectious palette of ragga-infused maneuvers and packing massive bass and snare-heavy punch, Alec Pace’s fiery ‘Mantra Separation’ is prototypical dancehall arson rolled into a steely techno membrane. A wide-ranging display of explosively diverse, satisfyingly weird sounds to keep minds and bodies on the edge.