August: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month
Bangers from Gqom Oh!, Only Now, Jikuroux and more
Only Now 'Timeslave' EP (Infinite Machine)
Under the moniker Only Now, San Francisco producer Kush Arora also makes industrial-tinged bass music with plenty of low-end. ‘Timeslave’, his debut for the Mexico City-based label Infinite Machine, capitalises on the feelings of suspense hinted at by its title. ‘Psychic War (Part I)’ starts off as a wash of deep textures and comes to a heavy, noisy drone, which decrescendos as swiftly as it built up, and the title track chugs with dense distortion along amidst light bell tones, before drifting into silence, then noise. That’s not to say that these are all serious and undanceable reflections on the precarious, high-anxiety atmosphere of this year: ‘Liquid Eyes’ rattles hollowly along, shifting tempo carefully and deliberately, sounding not unlike a party in the sewers.
7/10