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Cultured US label welcomes Texan talent Sticktalk for a swaggering techno workout
The five-track EP includes a remix from another Texas artist NNTY
Sticktalk is a new breed of US talent who has made a mark on the underground with his innovative soundscapes and genre-blurring techno arrangements. He hails from Houston, a town with a diverse musical heritage that takes in everything from screwed hip hop, y2k r&b and plenty of alternative cultures. All of that feeds into his work on labels like Perfect Dark, Freq System’s .mpfr3q and Clan Destine: it is eclectic, infused with rap, street and fresh rhythms and has had support from artists like BASSBEAR!!, Bae Blade and Christian Tokyo.
Say the artist, “The tracks were all written and recorded summer of ‘23. I locked myself in the studio at our underground techno club in Fort Worth called Machina for 24 hours and didn’t leave the room once while I cooked up the whole EP.”
Opener ‘Da Body Drop’ is high power, raw and swaggering techno with a dirty and distorted edge and rattling dub chords; It is perfect warehouse weaponry. ‘City of Syrup’ then keeps the sleazy vibes coming with high-speed kick patterns, overdriven claps, and twisted synth lines that are pure dynamite. ‘Put a Hit Out’ is no less gritty and muscular, but this time has swing in the drums and some brighter chords and chopped vocals, adding a playful twist. The brilliant ‘Lay Em Dine’ is another grimy techno banger with razor-sharp hi-hats cutting through the murk and warped synths, adding subtle machine soul.
Remixer NNTY is another Texan who has played a vital role in driving the scene forward with his no-nonsense sounds. Here, he flips ‘Da Body Drop’ into a wall-rattling techno bomb with slamming drums and hypnotic claps. It’s a dense wall of sound detailed with vocal snatches, textured chords and twitchy stabs.
Sticktalk’s ‘Crime Fetish EP’ comes on Darkroom Bureau on March 7th 2025.
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