cell out lurk in the murk of that solent estuarine backwash. tense breaks hold the lid on rave licks padded mists provide audile sanctuary. transcendence found in an oblong room the dragons tail of an apocalyptic blowout.

following swayzak’s gestures of a sycophant, the third release on beatnik boulevard sees the return of appleblim after he launched the label in style with the conch shell motives ep. this time the berlin-based producer is working alongside long-time collaborator and fellow bristol bassweight alumni komon – the duo have turned out eps for aus music and apple pips in the past, but this 12” represents the first new material from them since 2014. the heads-down, meditative lilt of appleblim & komon’s bristol past looms in the shadows on this ep, but it’s shot through with a steely, modernist dance floor bite and high-end sound design. know yourself pivots around crafty, 2-step kinked drums but there’s plenty of space afforded to atmospheric synth surges that plunge the track into a mood-altering headspace just to the left of the conventional dance floor

swayzak returns with gestures of a sycophant. after a back catalogue of severely epic proportions (the seminal album snowboarding in argentina for example), a legendary fabric residency & mix cd, and a relationship with tresor that spawned epic gigs and an lp, not to have released a record since 2012 is nothing short of criminal. 2017 then sees beatnik boulevard deliver two long overdue tracks of those big room stylings that has become synonymous with the name swayzak . even as you succumb to the bass pressure, the oceans of detail and programming flourishes that only come with decades spent in those worldwide techno bunkers bring to mind the pedigree of this release. it was once declared that swayzak is a techno dinosaur - looking back that seems a justified moniker to go with the guttural, brobdingnagian sounds of these compositions. slow moving though the spawning may have been, the monster has once again awakened.