SSPB028 | Released: 2024-04-05

Body Rock

BUY
  • Download

Please select your favorite option below.

Please select your favorite option below.

General Infos

Nestled within the Himalayas, one of the world’s most vital underground electronic music scenes continues to flourish. The Nepalese capital of Kathmandu has become an incubator for some of the most wild, forward-thinking sounds in dance music right now, developing from a tight-knit community of DJs and producers putting on DIY parties into a scene with growing critical acclaim, championed by Aisha Devi (who herself has Nepali heritage) and with plaudits from the likes of DJ Mag. YNZN is one of the community’s leading lights, and one listen to his SSPB debut Body Rock makes it immediately clear why. The EP threads together global currents of bass music with samples from centuries-old Nepalese folk tradition, transfigured into blistering percussive workouts that are as immediate as they are intricate.

YNZN’s genius lies in his canny use of space, delivering club salvoes with a daring minimalism and directness that belies each track’s textural depth. Throughout Body Rock he constantly ducks layers in and out to play with tension and release, carving out room to show off his rhythmic dexterity and razor-sharp sound design chops. There’s an even greater focus on percussion than the producer’s previous work, with almost any instrument ripe to chopped up and reconfigured as drums. “Smoke and Mirrors” recasts vocals from a traditional Nepalese folk song into jagged hooks, anchored by an elastic bass bounce. “Headshot” eschews melody almost entirely, instead using tuned drums to give subtle hints of harmony amidst the track’s skeletal rhythmic architecture. “Deuce” in contrast coalesces from propulsive drums and rave stabs into layered, interlocking melodic – arcing synths and melancholic pads providing the EP with some of its most emotive moments. “Body Rock” pushes the dance up to fever pitch, ratcheting up the BPM with infernal synth lines riding atop pneumatic percussion and cavernous low-end, pushing to even greater ecstatic highs.

Body Rock cements YNZN’s status not only as a flagbearer for the Nepalese scene, but one of the most thrilling producers anywhere right now – focusing his mutant club productions into even more minimalist, direct frameworks for his most daring outing yet.

Read More