Dive Into the Digital Underworld of Lockbox's New Tape 'Demonoid'

Hausu Mountain—the Chicago-based label run by Max Allison and Doug Kaplan of Good Willsmith—has become one of the most reliable tour guides of electronic music's outer realms. In the messy landscape of weirdos issuing torrents of inscrutable releases in the post-Bandcamp era, the duo have proven themselves capable curators, shepherding into the world a vast catalog of releases that includes (but certainly isn't limited to) transhumanist folk songs, unleaded ambient excursions, or full-on Id freakouts. You never really know exactly what you're going to get out of a batch of Hausu releases, but you can count on it being brain-expanding.

Back in 2014, the label was responsible for the release of Lockbox's collection of abstracted beatwork Prince Soul Grenade—a wonderfully weird highlight of the label's earlier years, and the Denver producer born Jesse Briata's most visible and realized collection to that point. Friday September 16, Briata's back with a new tape to prove that his production chops have developed alongside the label's growing stable of weirdos. Titled Demonoid, the 18-track release is a gleefully dark dive into an creepy underworld of found samples (like Playstation startup noises), nauseous synth sounds, and asymmetric kick drum patterns that hint at the same sort of cool agitation that drives most footwork tracks. It's noisy, overwhelming, and when everything clicks just right, it can be totally beautiful too, like the strange terrifying stasis of total freefall.

Demonoid is streaming in full today in advance of it's September 16 release, and you'll want to listen right here. If you like what you hear, the tape's still available for pre-order (alongside a couple of other giddy zoners from Tiger Village and Headboggle) over at the Hausu Mountain website.