UNO NYC’s Sharp Veins welds together two hours of mind-altering pop, psychedelic ambience, lo-fi rock, outsider folk and wonky techno on this wide-ranging mix.
Back in early 2014, Alabama-based producer William Harrison King was experimenting with Ableton Live, quietly taking inspiration from vintage hip-hop and a growing wave of grime producers in and around London. When London-based club night and label Boxed released their first compilation, King was featured under the William Skeng moniker with ‘Visit Me’, a track that fused Boxed’s bass-heavy minimalism with Timbaland’s syncopated, futuristic funk.
By the end of the year, though, King had moved on. Returning to the name Sharp Veins – a moniker he’d used in the past, snatched from a mis-heard Gang Starr lyric – he retained the rhythmic experimentation of his William Skeng material but fused it with a diverse range of musical interests, from the melancholy drone of Grouper to M.E.S.H.’s frazzled club experiments.
In spring 2015, King released Inbox Island on Glacial Sound and began to further illustrate his vision. Taking vaporwave’s cultural malaise, grime’s bass weight and the saccharine sweetness of mainstream pop, the producer laid out a blueprint that he builds on with this year’s excellent bleeds colors and puddles EP. It’s club music, sort of, but re-ordered to confuse and disrupt the senses.
It shouldn’t be surprising then that King’s FACT mix takes a similar route as the producer unashamedly mashes together Young Marble Giants, Kyle Hall, Celine Dion (really), In Flames and whatever else is festering in the dark recesses of his external hard drive with tons of original material. It’s a two-hour journey that’s as rewarding as it is unpredictable.
Tracklist:
Sharp Veins – ‘Hi Winder MENU MUSIC’
After The Burial – ‘Ometh’
Wednesday Campanella – ‘Onyankopon’
Sharp Veins – ‘Frag8 & Travel Scam Voicemail’
Young Marble Giants – ‘Salad Days’
Units – ‘Mission’
B.B & Q Band – ‘6 Million Times’
Yukihiro Takahashi – ‘Extraordinary’
Sharp Veins – ‘Frag1’
Beaumont Hannant – ‘Heavenly’
Birthday Boy – ‘Homeward Bound’
Sharp Veins – ‘A8’
Akiko Yano – ‘Night Train Home’
The Magick Heads – ‘Back of her Hand’
Mavado – ‘Settle Down’
Kero Kero Bonito – ‘Flamingo’
Celine Dion – ‘That’s the Way It Is’ (Metro Mix)
Sharp Veins – ‘Kudzu Wavtable Slowdown Double Mix’
Kyle Hall – ‘Measure 2 Measure’
Ian Van Dahl – ‘Reason’
Sweet Trip – ‘Dsco’
Sharp Veins & Allcapps – ‘U Never Know’ (128 loop)
Would Be Goods – ‘Perfect Dear’
Lali Puna – ‘Contratempo’
Sharp Veins – ‘Torch Beat Loop’
Spangle Call Lilli Line – ‘Seventeen’
Algernon Cadwallader – ‘Motivational Song’
In Flames – ‘December Flower’
Sharp Veins – ‘Mellowdeath’
Sharp Veins – ‘Jaws’re’
Sharp Veins – ‘Frag5’
Sharp Veins – ‘I Care For What U Wish For’
Aragon – ‘Attbtt’
Autechre – ‘Foldfree Casual’
Yoshio Ojima – ‘Mensis’
Apogee & Perigee – ‘Sakasakenjin Egas’
Clan of Xymox – ‘Louise’
Diane Cluck – ‘Wild Deer at Dawn’
Sharp Veins (ft. Leel Reading) – ‘Stone Bell [Static]’
