Alejandra Cabrera reviews Tunnel Vision by Aircode, released under Takuroku, Cafe Oto’s digital label supporting artists in lockdown.

London-based Swedish DJ/producer Aircode (Julia Svensson) welcomes the new month with the release of Tunnel Vision. This work shows a style proper of the producer which comprises sounds extracted from various corners of the electronic experimental field. Svensson manipulates eclectic sounds such as phone recordings, piano keys and unexpected rhythms, making out of Tunnel Vision a challenging and new musical offering.

Following her recent shows at NTS and Threads Radio, the Swedish producer’s EP is her fourth one, following a busy 2019, in which all of her previous EPs were released, including her debut EP Dislocated. Svensson’s style could fall into a category described by Air Max’97 as “nightmare dance music” in her sets, and falls into a more stripped back experimental in Tunnel Vision (listen to Dig Yourself a Hole)

Tunnel Vision is an industrial experimental journey that encompasses many disciplines and starts out with a dark techno introduction that is sustained throughout the EP.

These first beats are accompanied throughout the track by discordant jazz piano notes and different instruments that serve as storytellers of this strong yet mostly minimal EP.

Towards the middle of the EP, Svensson meticulously crafts the journey with the use of drums as the main voice.

The 25 minute-long release is set to become an instant classic of the experimental genre and ends the EP with an opaque beat and a manipulated voice that reads an extract from Caliban and The Witch, a book written by Marxist-feminist sociologist Silvia Federici. Federici sustains that the beginning of the proletariat needed a war against women, and this inaugurated a new sexual pact and era of patriarchy: the patriarchy of the wage. In this excerpt, Federici explains, rooted in the history of the witches’ persecution, why the subjugation of women was crucial for the forming of the proletariat. With this knowledge, one can go back to the EP and notice a chained journey, one of attempted release and persistence.

Previous sets of Svensson were loaded with a more clubbing aesthetic including genres such as experimental and ambient. The releases of the Swedish producer in their variety are strong and fresh, loaded with a feminist attitude, which is crystallized in Tunnel Vision. Svensson’s music seemingly fits with London’s avant-garde club scene, where her sound is resonating in the style of smaller clubs such as The Glove that Fits, Rye Wax and Cafe Oto. This dreamscape release is a formidable EP from a producer we are expecting to hear much more about.

—

All tracks Aircode. Artwork design by Oliver Barrett

Alejandra Cabrera is an electronic music enthusiast and freelance journalist based in London. Her interests include exploring techno and imagining the many places she’d like to rave at globally, now Colombia is number one. In her free time, she finds herself reading about politics and looking for opportunities to share stories, as well as writing for Vice and Threads Radio.

Twitter: @alupicabr
Instagram: @alupicabrera