The masked cats are back.
Exactly two years after their ambitious debut album Welcome To Our Church, the Kannibalen bossmen present their sophomore set: the dramatic, intense 10-track trip that is New Worlds. A hurly burly fusion of dubstep, electro and titanium orchestral elements, it’s even more visceral, direct and brutal than their previous album. And it’s inspired by both their fascination with sci-fi, technology and wariness of the current world politics.
“New Worlds is about discovery and change,” they explain. “We feel that society right now is changing a lot, with new technologies like AI and blockchain having a lot of potential for good but also being very disruptive. Social media has been around for a few years but I think people are only starting to fully realize the impact it can have on our perception of the world. And the political atmosphere as a whole has been very charged.”
“We wanted the album to reflect all these ideas. We’re big fans of sci-fi which is a genre that’s always been used to reflect on where society is going. We took a very musical approach to that, so we filled the album with a lot of tension, and a lot of juxtaposition between older, more orchestral sounds and more futuristic synths. We wanted people to feel the wonder and danger that can both come with new discoveries, with facing the unexpected. And yes, if we push things to the extreme we do feel like we could be going in an apocalyptic direction!”
One thing that isn’t quite so unexpected is the overt heaviness of New Worlds. The subject matter and inspiration behind the album might be deep and provocative, but the vibe and energy – from the metal-frazzled Sullivan King-collabed cut Madness to the balls-out dubstep Lions with Yookie – is fixed firmly on the dancefloor.
“When we really started working on the album at the beginning of 2017, we had been touring heavily for a few years and we noticed how certain tracks we produced worked and others that might work at home didn’t necessarily translate well to the live show,” they tell us. “So one part of the vision was to create a collection of tracks that we could all play out live. We also wanted to cover the different styles and tempos we play, so there’s some bass in there, some dubstep, some little nods to breaks or more old-school big beat which we all love and of course electro. Classic electro was what really pushed us to get into making electronic music and it’s not something we ever want to move away from. We love that balance between retro melodic synths and the rocky grittiness of the style.”
And we love it when gnarly, full-flavoured bass music is wrapped up with paranoid and dramatic social-political commentary. For more rocky grittiness, and general theatrical end-of-world heaviness, we asked Black Tiger Sex Machine for five apocalyptic bangers. They did not disappoint.
Black Tiger Sex Machine – New Worlds is out now on Kannibalen
Justice – Genesis
The cross and the sound of Justice are big inspirations for the BTSM project. We remember seeing them live before we had spend any time making music and just thinking how amazing they were. We had never heard really an act blending epic orchestral sounds and distortion in the way they did.
The Prodigy – Breathe
Any track off Fat Of The Land could be on this list. It’s crazy how well this album has aged. It still sounds as fresh and hard-hitting as ever. When that opening riff comes on, you can just feel a sense of darkness and intensity coming over you.
Destructo – Technology
A digital apocalypse. It blends the boundaries of electro and techno. Years later, it still seems fresh.
Apashe – Lacrimosa
A mozart classic re-invented by our man Apashe. He created an anthemic hybrid monster that makes you move to another dimension and revive all ages of human history.
Basil Poledouris – Riddle Of Steel / Riders Of Doom
We couldn’t pass off the chance to mention the soundtrack to the original Conan The Barbarian, one of the best and most epic soundtracks ever. You can just tell by the title that this track means business. This soundtrack is a big inspiration for us. There’s also a version on spotify that is all done on the organ which is amazing.
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