After a few years' hiatus, SHXCXCHCXSH are now opening up their label Rosten again with the EP "DO". Four tracks that resume their sound and approach to techno and club music. More

A year after their much-praised debut album STRGTHS, Avian's cryptic Swedish duo SHXCXCHCXSH are ready to present their second album, Linear S Decoded, this August. From the elegiac opener Entering The S-Cloud, the intensity of tracks such as Elocution and Rudimental Retreat, to the disorienting beauty of Wading Guise and aptly-titled closer Monolithic Conclusion, the LP deftly broadens the scope of SHXCXCHCXSH's singular aesthetic. Keeping their mystic aura has always been important to SHXCXCHCXSH - so important they didn’t want to take part in what they deemed 'the language game' until now. Their previous strict use of fragmented track titles illustrated an ideal of communication purely through music, to service the focus on sound via complete abstraction. Breaking the habit with Linear S Decoded doesn’t necessarily indicate a complete break with their approach, but an adjustment to the direction they have travelled since they first emerged two years ago. As Resident Advisor identified in a perceptive review of the previous LP, among SHXCXCHCXSH's key strengths is the imbuing of their productions with a narrative sense, a sonic progression that moves beyond techno's standard repetition - it's an element of their work that's heightened further on Linear S Decoded, pulling focus from the more grinding, brutalist elements of their distinct sound to reveal the more melodic, almost optimistic, elements that had previously remained in the shadows of the productions until now. The track titles themselves are evocative about the new record whilst revealing few specifics: no less intriguing than the clustered consonants of the prior release titles, hinting at deeper underlying narratives at play, possibly historically informed, or a fiction of the duo's own making. Either way, definitive answers will not be forthcoming: the mysteries that lay beneath SHXCXCHCXSH's approach to music making have long been an intrinsic part of their appeal. Linear S Decoded presents the opportunity for newcomers and those already au fait with the duo to employ their deciphering abilities, whilst simultaneously offering an expanded and ever more richly detailed landscape to traverse...

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Avian’s first release in 2014 comes from the enigmatic Swedish duo SHXCXCHCXSH. Following their highly acclaimed debut LP STRGTHS, released last summer, the duo now returns with their fourth release for the label. The EP collects three staggering techno workouts with fragmented track titles in familiar manner. The A-side starts off straightforward with VVVLLLLVVV’s stabbing kick drum alongside an eerie melody that works its way through to the flip site. MRRRWRRRDS first embraces the listener with a warm, murky bass before falling into the fluttering beat that drives the track forward. Closer MRRRCHNNNN brings no ease with a restless pounding defining the tone for Avian in 2014...
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After a few years' hiatus, SHXCXCHCXSH are now opening up their label Rosten again with the EP "DO". Four tracks that resume their sound and approach to techno and club music. More

AAA (pronounced something like AOE) is the first release from SHXCXCHCXSH under the new moniker HSXCHCXCXHS. It's a single LP, delivered in 80 bpm and presented with visuals from Pedro Maia. More

Following last year's 'Vitriol' EP and 'Otider' album, SSTROM is back on Rosten with 'Drenched', 12 tracks for the floor, divided on 3 EPs, each to be released three weeks apart. SSTROM is the project of Hannes Stenstrom, once part of Swedish band Slagsmalsklubben, and one half of enigmatic techno duo SHXCXCHCXSH (SHX). SSTROM's output is explicitly immersive, relying on tense immediacy and spontaneity. The subtle 4x4 pulsations frame vivid narratives, rich layers of texture with lush harmonies surfacing from the warm and alien flow. On his 'Otider' LP SSTROM manifested a sonic diversity relating to his personal experiences and incorporated a diversity of genres and elements ranging from '90s rave to hints of minimal synth or outsider house melodic sensibility, yet everything carefully merged into a coherent whole. On 'Drenched' SSTROM concretizes his ideas even further. The EP's came to life after he broke his computer by spilling a drink on it. It forced him to try out different techniques of composing and recording. With limited ways of working, a more minimalistic form of expression emerged, based on very short but mind-bending harmonic structures and layered pulsations. The process proved to be very creative and resulted in these twelve tracks whose magic will work best on EP format and for the floor.

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Following last year's 'Vitriol' EP and 'Otider' album, SSTROM is back on Rosten with 'Drenched', 12 tracks for the floor, divided on 3 EPs, each to be released three weeks apart. SSTROM is the project of Hannes Stenstrom, once part of Swedish band Slagsmalsklubben, and one half of enigmatic techno duo SHXCXCHCXSH (SHX). SSTROM's output is explicitly immersive, relying on tense immediacy and spontaneity. The subtle 4x4 pulsations frame vivid narratives, rich layers of texture with lush harmonies surfacing from the warm and alien flow. On his 'Otider' LP SSTROM manifested a sonic diversity relating to his personal experiences and incorporated a diversity of genres and elements ranging from '90s rave to hints of minimal synth or outsider house melodic sensibility, yet everything carefully merged into a coherent whole. On 'Drenched' SSTROM concretizes his ideas even further. The EP's came to life after he broke his computer by spilling a drink on it. It forced him to try out different techniques of composing and recording. With limited ways of working, a more minimalistic form of expression emerged, based on very short but mind-bending harmonic structures and layered pulsations. The process proved to be very creative and resulted in these twelve tracks whose magic will work best on EP format and for the floor. More

Following last year's 'Vitriol' EP and 'Otider' album, SSTROM is back on Rosten with 'Drenched', 12 tracks for the floor, divided on 3 EPs, each to be released three weeks apart. SSTROM is the project of Hannes Stenstrom, once part of Swedish band Slagsmalsklubben, and one half of enigmatic techno duo SHXCXCHCXSH (SHX). SSTROM's output is explicitly immersive, relying on tense immediacy and spontaneity. The subtle 4x4 pulsations frame vivid narratives, rich layers of texture with lush harmonies surfacing from the warm and alien flow. On his 'Otider' LP SSTROM manifested a sonic diversity relating to his personal experiences and incorporated a diversity of genres and elements ranging from '90s rave to hints of minimal synth or outsider house melodic sensibility, yet everything carefully merged into a coherent whole. On 'Drenched' SSTROM concretizes his ideas even further. The EP's came to life after he broke his computer by spilling a drink on it. It forced him to try out different techniques of composing and recording. With limited ways of working, a more minimalistic form of expression emerged, based on very short but mind-bending harmonic structures and layered pulsations. The process proved to be very creative and resulted in these twelve tracks whose magic will work best on EP format and for the floor. More