Blawan - Sickelixir
Blawan - Sickelixir
SickElixir is Blawan's debut album for XL Recordings, fourteen tracks crafted between Berlin, Leeds, Paris and Lisbon that push his industrial techno in a more personal direction than usual.
Jamie Roberts started out as a drummer in Barnsley before Fram, his 2010 debut album on Hessle Audio, revealed him as one of the sharpest producers in a scene that was just beginning to rediscover the punchy, heavy sound of industrial techno. Since then, he's run his own Ternesc label, collaborated with Pariah under the name Karenn and with Surgeon under the name Trade, and has consistently pushed his solo work further into modular synthesis and truly weird territory through EPs like Dismantled Into Juice. This record is where it all converges, with family heartbreak and turmoil processed through sound rather than explained by it.
The GL Lights opens the album with the mechanical, clicking percussion that has always been his signature, colder and disorienting than most techno music. Rabbit Hole, featuring Monstera Black, brings a vocal presence that contrasts with the usual instrumental austerity, and Birf Song is the album's strangest detour, barely holding together in a way that feels deliberate. The title track closes the whole thing in the most emotionally direct way, with the concept finally naming itself.
Fourteen tracks from a producer known for his restraint which finally lets something more disordered shine through. It suits him well.
Track listing
- The GL Lights
- OUR
- Weirdos United
- Rabbit Hole
- WTF
- Cash
- Birf Song
- During Elevation
- Don't Worry We Happy
- Teef style
- Sonkind
- TCP Burn
- Creature Brigade
- SickElixir