Bookworms Explores "Standards of Beauty" on Hypnotic New Track

L.I.E.S. and Confused House-affiliated producer, Bookworms, has shared the blissfully grating title track off his forthcoming Standards of Beauty EP on Barcelona-based imprint Anòmia. Composed outward from a hypnotizing loop that alternately sounds like dulled synthetic bells and oddly EQ'd hand drums (or both at once), Nik Dawson sets things moving at an obstinately plodding pace, eventually orbiting the central motif with a nasty pair of clacking and oscillating buzzes in the higher frequency range.

"'Standards of Beauty' refers to the restrictiveness of Western/European standards of beauty and the alternative realities and narratives that exist either indifferent to or defiant of them," the artist said in the press release for the EP. "It refers to the feedback loops that occur between those standards and their counterpoints, where the standard's inverse is fetishized. I'm thinking of existence in a weird universe within all of that—being told I wasn't black or white enough pretty much my whole life. Where is the standard there? This record is my alternative reality."

Earlier this year, Dawson told THUMP that this EP works as a companion piece to his debut album Xenophobe: "It's all about various perspectives in the struggle for self worth. Ways of trying to deal with the bullshit.

Standards of Beauty will be released on September 23 on 12" and digital formats.

Follow Alexander on Twitter.