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SlugoS delivers a dark atmospheric and driving techno album on German Sacred Court, imprint label run by SNTS. The LP format is rarely exploited by producers nowadays, but he luckily gets back to it and delivers a beautifully crafted album that evolves and brings a diverse set of sounds from start to end.

SlugoS is a Spanish techno producer that’s marked the hard-techno scene with his own unique blend of sounds, characterised by powerful and poly-metric beats and unique colours of elements that accompany it. He’s been releasing music since he was a teenager counting many releases in the hard-techno world, and is also a boss at his own label Caedite Eos.

Starting with Sheol’s Covenant, the atmosphere is set and we get a glimpse of the sound that the journey will uphold – sampled vocals coated in depths of darkness that repetitively plays alongside spices of rhythmic power by the poly-metric kicks, with these eerie synth that’ll send shivers down your spine.

SlugoS has a signature sound, his kicks are like nobody else in the scene and the way he sets his often polymetric rhythms is always diverse, it never sounds like it’s repeating. In the second track Heretical Subversion you will get introduced to the philosophy and heavyweights of the powerful beats, what SlugoS as a producer stands for is very evident in the track. The beat is powerful, driving and perfect for the universe he’s painting. The percussions alongside the kick are shaped in such a way that nothing dominates, but everything is equally there to build this energy that evolves and develops the darkness that’s playing. As a machine of power beyond what humans are capable of, resembling a Swiss watch or even Japanese car engines – the production is characterised by precision and arrangements of elements, refreshing and constantly stimulating – but in a hypnotic and calm way. After the second part of the track the breakdown begins, the reese synth that’s introduced there and exclusively appears to break all of your expectations, it brings the track to the next level and kind of puts you into a space where you now understand everything – what is this, what is the meaning, what will follow and give you the support to let go and dive into the journey.

The numbered 22.2.22 is such a blast, the kicks blasting throughout and that perfect moment that some of my favourite producers in techno have mastered – the moment when they introduce the hi-hats, the colours of the sound, everything about it. To some it may sound like a very simple thing to do, but if you’ve been introduced slightest to the production world – such precision and confidence in bringing elements comes with lots of experience, hours spent and invested behind the studio. The claps that come very soon after follow a 4/4 pattern that is reminiscent of tunes back in the early 00s, back when artists like DJ Rush were at their hardest and purest peaks and people wanted it the rawest. Despite me pin-pointing at elements separately, that doesn’t matter when you’re going to experience this tune – either at home by having a mental therapy listening to this album – because it’s definitely made for that too, or by chance someone playing this melter on the dance-floor and sound-systems in a foggy and mentally dark but huge space – this tracks natural habitat.

The atmospheric element is massive throughout, and the darkness that shines in all of the tracks reminds me of dark ambient scapes from the likes of Lustmord and Robert Rich. The huge, “lazy” but black sounds on Bogotá Distrito Capital takes the responsibility of an album release very seriously, it acts as this dance-floor oriented power-smasher with an emotional substance that will put you in the depths of your thoughts, and will put your body on auto-pilot as the track progresses: the synths, the percussions and breaks and that rhythm of his.
Every album evolves in its own way, and it depends on the release and artist for how much diverse it would be. Despite him producing in the hard techno world, all of the tracks are unique as in they radiate a special dark and powerful energy and all of them evolve to become a part of this collective as a release – everyone with its own act, purpose and a totally surprising evolution in their journeys. After that dive of sounds in the track, we’re back at something that SlugoS is perhaps most known for – his polymetric rhythms and the masterful combination of everything that follows. The driving kicks on Eyes Wide Open blast with full energy, imagine playing this tune driving fastttt on a highway – in your eyes you see the obstacles, but everything that’s affecting you negatively loses its power, and the track imprinting a signature on your mind that you will remember forever – a power that certain tracks possess when they’re played at the right time and place. Shivering cold, but in the depth of a core made from lava-hot substance.

Sapphire’s synths at the start gave me some butterflies – the shape and colour of their sound is something completely new in this album so far, they’re bright but hypnotised by these repetitive techno elements that give the whole sound picture an bizarrely dark, twisted but ever-lasting vibe. I could fucking dance to this for hours, I could give it all to this track and let it guide me through what I’m always seeking when going on raves.

I can’t describe it, these sorts of rhythms aren’t exclusive to him as whole styles and directions in techno also use them, but the way SlugoS does it is radiating differently and I can yell “That’s a Slugos track!” just because of this even in my sleep. I love that, because if I find myself liking somebody’s sound signature, I am hooked and always waiting, always hungry for more. For myself personally, that’s what good artists and producers have – their own blend of reality that resonates in their sound. Violence in Motion by itself is wicked, it goes and goes only to blast these metallic short stabs that tingle my techno-soul.

On Blackout we’re introduced with a utilitarian groove that bangs, evolves and even changes from poly-metric to 4/4 while the track progresses. It’s very hypnotic with a deep soundscape that follows the beat playing around with the whole of elements in the background that consists of frequencies that —when you close your eyes— they take you to another world. As the breakdown starts and slowly everything but these elements are left naked, the moment that everything starts again has been evolving to such a high tension, the metallic synth now dominates with more confidence and power, and it seems like the kicks and whole beat got back with artillery of a bigger sort.

Crawl Out Of The Sewer has these delayed 4/4 kicks that go throughout, a very interesting choice that works well, but it’s not until the hi-hats are brought into action that you understand something is going to build up, and you have no idea what that’s going to be. Like, the pressure that’s building up is very serious and the industrial nature of the rhythm blends along very nicely with all of the elements and his soundscape. This track does not build up to a cheap fake transition – but when the breakdown happens it happens slowly – adding to the tension that’s going on. Slowly after putting things to a nearly calm state, he brings back the track and goes full madman mode with these cymbals in a 4/4 pattern like the claps on that track before. After that moment, the track evolves by shifting diversely to its several states, and continues to bring pressure, tension and blacker depths as it goes. This one is more listener and mind-melting oriented than it is a dance-floor weapon like some of the tracks before, and that’s a good thing, because when you’re listening to the whole LP from start to end – it sure makes perfect sense and is a brilliant way to sign out after having 40 minutes of techno magic done in his own distinctive way.

I was hyped when I found out that Heretical Subversion is going to be an album, I’m still discovering techno myself and exploring the roots of late 90s and early 00s – more specifically Speedy J as an example with his albums, I find that most of the scene and releases that are coming out  follow that 4-5 track EP format, and whilst those have a different purpose and philosophy, I believe an artist can best express himself to a much more refined and detailed way when he has plenty of time and he doesn’t follow that philosophy that all tunes are first built for the dance-floor, but he gives his purest expression and by doing that he completely dominates and overthrows the question if these tunes are to be played somewhere… in a club, in a rave, on a dance-floor… you know? What would happen?

With this album, comparison to anything that’s out there wouldn’t make any sense. Like Speedy J’s Loudboxer LP was such an eye-opener for me, SlugoS gifted me the same enjoyable experience that throughout the tracks put me in a deeper state of mind, the hypnotic element that few can handle – especially when mixed with a hard, driving beats, especially like his. As when music freaks like me, maybe you and dozen of others don’t seek the release to be only friendly or powerful on the dance-floor, we seek a journey that makes perfect sense for us from the beginning to the end – as it speaks directly to our souls and we follow each moment as it evolves in front of our ears, surprising us, exceeding our expectations – or with sharper words better said simply fucks our brains proper.

Heretical Subversion will age like any proper techno does – timeless, and better as time goes by. It’s dark, not particularly easy to listen to each time you play, you need to be in the mood to give yourself fully to the experience – once again what release that’s serious in the expression doesn’t require this? What I wanna say is that if you’re perhaps looking for some strict-banger tunes on a weekend that you and all of your friends can dance to without any struggle, this is definitely NOT it. What this is is a release that holds power of the real depths of darkness – it is patient and sometimes even slow, it is completely hypnotic and as a contrast to everything, it’s accompanied by rhythms made by one of the most prolific artists coming from the contemporary hard techno scene.

The release was published on February 17th via Bandcamp and other stores on SNTN’s sub-label Sacred Court, and is available for purchase on vinyl and on digital stores.


We’ve been lucky to have SlugoS as a guest on our Dense podcast, make sure to check it out if you’re fan of intense, insane techno gone wild.


Published by frekvencii.org with unique-ID №2747
Written by Andrijan Apostoloski — Bushi on 7 March 2023