Subtext’s xin blends influences from their debut full-length MELTS INTO LOVE into a thick soup of bass, breaks and searing intensity.
Earlier this year, Berlin-based producer and writer xin released MELTS INTO LOVE on the Subtext imprint. Influenced by neurofunk, hardcore and dubstep, the album inverted a wide spread of rave tropes, dissolving them into an oily pool of psychedelic noise.
xin managed to achieve what so many producers have failed to: they referenced countless hoary rave tropes without resorting to any familiar templates. At times, it’s hard to work out exactly what you’re listening to as bass drops echo into the void and percussion sizzles just outside of the pineal gland.
For this mix, xin has put together a less shrouded selection of influences and inspirations, running through tracks from bass and hardcore legends like Ed Rush & Optical, The DJ Producer and Dom & Roland, and blending them lovingly with transmissions from the global dance continuum and the contemporary club world.
“It’s full of dance music old and new that I was excited by while writing the record,” they explain to FACT. “Music by friends, heroes and dickheads.” It’s a fathoms-deep, technically expressionistic blend of bizarre, broken and beautiful sounds that reminds us why we’re so excited by where dance music is heading right now.
Tracklist:
I Hate Models – ‘Impossible Love’
Trisicloplox – ‘bonemulcher’
Iceboy Violet & Jennifer Walton – ‘Vanity’
Basic Rhythm – ‘Buss It’
J-Zbel – ‘Diablo Verde’ (Live At Bordeaux)
LOFT – ‘And Eats Itself And Eats Itself And Eats Itself’
Chants – ‘Assiah Dance’
Culprate – ‘Void’
Vex’d – ‘Lion VIP’
Eprom – ‘666-ACID’
Gatekeeper – ‘Hanseatic’
Aquarian – ‘Obsidian’ (Randomer remix)
Hyph11e – ‘Sinking’
The DJ Producer – ‘The Biggest Rave on Earth’
Gabber Modus Operandi – ‘Tekyan’
E-Saggila – ‘Alia’ (ft. Thoom)
Torn – ‘Dance on the Bones’
AYA – ‘I Will Not Come At Your Beck And Call’
Badsista – ‘Me dei bem na lapa’ (JUNGLE VIP)
Ed Rush & Optical – ‘Funktion’
Dom & Roland – ‘Can’t Punish Me’ (2007 Remix)
Rob Data & Kemal – ‘Konspiracy’
Lord of the Wrongs – ‘mitsubishi twin turbo time trial’
I Hate Models – ‘Impossible Love’
Read next: 20 under-the-radar club tracks you need to hear – November 2019
