“Let me show you something, that will make you feel young, as when the world was new”
Slime hits it’s 50th release and to celebrate we’ve got something truly special for you.
From its inception at the start of this decade, the label has strived to bring you the very best in forward-thinking electronic music, designed as much for your own headspace as it is for the dancefloor. We’ve sought to re-capture the wide-eyed thrill of the first age of rave, that era of experimental sounds and styles which changed the way so many of us listen to music forever, and re-interpret it for a new generation.
With that in mind we welcome Vausz to the label. The story begins in the spring of 2011, when we first heard his work. It immediately flooded our synapses with a warm sense of nostalgia, his style implicitly woven from the fabric of rave’s best elements – but wholly imbued with a sense of the here and now. Playful, evocative and totally uplifting – we were hooked. However, we felt there was something else that could be accomplished here beyond the normal parameters of what we release. So we set Vausz a challenge – create an album that puts it all together. The faded heritage of rave, the ecstasy-drenched comedowns, the hazy mix of genres – make something that is a testament to our love for this music. His response? Challenge accepted.
Painstakingly crafted over the last year with banks of battered hardware, the album you have now is just over an hour long but absolutely crammed with invention. Intended to be enjoyed as one whole cohesive piece of music, ‘Bōsōzoku’ sounds like Blade Runner on Acid. Taking its name from the Japanese term for biker gangs (the literal translation is “violent running tribe”) whose style and attitude were channeled in such seminal films as Akira, the music creates a neon-soaked apocalyptic mindscape which is completely immersive. Lend us your ears for one hour and Vausz will transport you to another world constructed from the golden age sounds of rave.
Across twelve tracks Vausz distills the spirit of electronic music in an odyssey through house, techno, electro, acid, ambient and downbeat that recalls the timeless quality of artists such as Leftfield, Future Sound Of London, Boards Of Canada, Aphex Twin and Biosphere. Digested as a whole it is a truly hallucinatory experience; a complete removal from the transitory and a sonic projection into something profoundly surreal.
In its purest form it encapsulates what Slime stands for – music to move minds.