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Partisan's Hardcore Grime Is Like a Sonic "Fuck You"

"Flood" and "Magma" is gonna send those Berlin kids at Janus into a cyber mosh frenzy.

Partisan's "Magma" and "Flood"— self-released on September 19 as a double A-side—is dance-oriented industrial music with a 'fuck you' punk attitude, a melodic trepanation that re-enacts that Saturday morning the neighbors trotted out a jackhammer to look for buried treasure under the living room floor.

The UK producer (who goes by the name Bunny Intonamorous, and it doesn't get more metal than that) was inspired by the notion that the new wave of grime exemplified by Mumdance, Dark0, and sd laika could be brought together with the sandpaper swirls of "power ambient" artists like Ben Frost, TCF, and Tim Hecker), along with the huge distorted kicks of UK hardcore and the abrasive mindset of industrial music and drone.

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Of course, this idea hit him at one of Evian Christ's "trance parties," where, when listening to bizarro abstract club music, he found himself dancing right next to Bjork.

"Bjork is, in fact, tiny, really well-dressed, and an excellent dancer," Intonamorous says. "She's an amazing natural resource that we should conserve for future generations."

Partisan's "Magma" and "Flood"— self-released on September 19 as a double A-side—is dance-oriented industrial music with a 'fuck you' punk attitude, a melodic trepanation that re-enacts that Saturday morning the neighbors trotted out a jackhammer to look for buried treasure under the living room floor.

The UK producer (who goes by the name Bunny Intonamorous, and it doesn't get more metal than that) was inspired by the notion that the new wave of grime exemplified by Mumdance, Dark0, and sd laika could be brought together with the sandpaper swirls of "power ambient" artists like Ben Frost, TCF, and Tim Hecker), along with the huge distorted kicks of UK hardcore and the abrasive mindset of industrial music and drone.

Of course, this idea hit him at one of Evian Christ's "trance parties," where, when listening to bizarro abstract club music, he found himself dancing right next to Bjork.

"Bjork is, in fact, tiny, really well-dressed, and an excellent dancer," Intonamorous says. "She's an amazing natural resource that we should conserve for future generations."

Both "Magma" and "Flood," and the previous Partisan releases (there are six in total, with names like experimental, elemental, universal, corpal, metaphysical, and chronal) characterize the emergence of a new style of cybernetic club music that's hugely influenced by grime, but also ballroom, dancehall, hardcore, ambient music, and noise. "A lot of the artists I know are really conscious about using noise techniques like field recordings and feedback in their club work," Intonamorous says. "The common thread that brings us all together is that we sound alien, but are still very much focused on some form of dance music for club consumption."

Intonamorous was born one time signature off from being a classical composer, and studied neoclassical and avant garde composition at university—an education which he says "in no way prepares you for digital music." These days, he is one half of the glorious label Aural Sects, and also produces under the aliases Pet Cemetery and Hypersport Ltd, listing Wiley, Mortal Kombat, Haxan Cloak, and Ben Frost, as well as "local industrial factories," "large stretches of untouched, unsullied, inhospitable lands," and simply "materials" as his chief influences.

The Haxan Cloak on His Electronic Drone Metal: "I Want to Be the Most Intense Thing on the Bill Wherever I Play"


When I ask about his multi-genre mashing sound, Intonamorous rejects the concept of genres altogether. "In a world where everything is a Google search or SoundCloud tag away, these boundaries have become meaningless," he explains. "I don't think 'genre' is even the right word anymore, when all styles and ideas bleed into one another continuously across the music spectrum, especially online. I think it's more appropriate to use 'descriptors' and tags instead as indicators of which musical space you operate in."

Venus X and MA NGUZU at a recent GHE20G0TH1K party(Photo courtesy of the Red Bull Content Pool)

Intonamorous says he is more inspired by parties like Janus in Berlin, Endless in London, and GHE20G0TH1K in New York City—celebrations of myriad forms of hyper-aggressive, ultra-stylized club and noise music, usually with a heavy visual element. "The atmosphere is heavy and euphoric while still being pretty highly experimental. The music's weird, but people still dance like their lives depends on it."

"The appeal of these club nights," he continues, "is that all expressions are valid—whether that be making out, standing around feeling dread, voguing, or even starting a moshpit."

Another characteristic of this scene, I suggest, is a preoccupation with becoming machine—or at least, experimenting with the human/machine interface. "Put it this way," he replies, "I'd take any opportunity to leave this meat sack and fall headfirst into the hyper-connected, technologically-enhanced future. If the bad kind of singularity comes, I aim to be on the side that isn't stuck in one body."

Both "Magma" and "Flood," and the previous Partisan releases (there are six in total, with names like experimental, elemental, universal, corpal, metaphysical, and chronal) characterize the emergence of a new style of cybernetic club music that's hugely influenced by grime, but also ballroom, dancehall, hardcore, ambient music, and noise. "A lot of the artists I know are really conscious about using noise techniques like field recordings and feedback in their club work," Intonamorous says. "The common thread that brings us all together is that we sound alien, but are still very much focused on some form of dance music for club consumption."

Intonamorous was born one time signature off from being a classical composer, and studied neoclassical and avant garde composition at university—an education which he says "in no way prepares you for digital music." These days, he is one half of the glorious label Aural Sects, and also produces under the aliases Pet Cemetery and Hypersport Ltd, listing Wiley, Mortal Kombat, Haxan Cloak, and Ben Frost, as well as "local industrial factories," "large stretches of untouched, unsullied, inhospitable lands," and simply "materials" as his chief influences.

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The Haxan Cloak on His Electronic Drone Metal: "I Want to Be the Most Intense Thing on the Bill Wherever I Play"

When I ask about his multi-genre mashing sound, Intonamorous rejects the concept of genres altogether. "In a world where everything is a Google search or SoundCloud tag away, these boundaries have become meaningless," he explains. "I don't think 'genre' is even the right word anymore, when all styles and ideas bleed into one another continuously across the music spectrum, especially online. I think it's more appropriate to use 'descriptors' and tags instead as indicators of which musical space you operate in."

Venus X and MA NGUZU at a recent GHE20G0TH1K party(Photo courtesy of the Red Bull Content Pool)

Intonamorous says he is more inspired by parties like Janus in Berlin, Endless in London, and GHE20G0TH1K in New York City—celebrations of myriad forms of hyper-aggressive, ultra-stylized club and noise music, usually with a heavy visual element. "The atmosphere is heavy and euphoric while still being pretty highly experimental. The music's weird, but people still dance like their lives depends on it."

"The appeal of these club nights," he continues, "is that all expressions are valid—whether that be making out, standing around feeling dread, voguing, or even starting a moshpit."

Another characteristic of this scene, I suggest, is a preoccupation with becoming machine—or at least, experimenting with the human/machine interface. "Put it this way," he replies, "I'd take any opportunity to leave this meat sack and fall headfirst into the hyper-connected, technologically-enhanced future. If the bad kind of singularity comes, I aim to be on the side that isn't stuck in one body."