S16 Music
H2SO4
Sounds of a New Dystopia
My relationship with h2so4 first began when I edited a fanzine down at the S16 studio complex.
In those days S16 was a terrible place.
You’ve heard of Andy Warhol’s seminal ‘Factory’? Of Course you have, the place is legendary.
Imagine an English version of that with an unemployed painter & decorator in the place of Warhol,
a ludicrous mixture of rapidly aging buffoons in the place of The Velvet Underground
and a mad blow-smoking hippy with fat thighs and arty pretentions in the place of Nico. You’re not even close, but in the right ball park, certainly.
I was typing away, desperately trying to avoid eye contactwith any of the poseurs, ponces and pretend pop-stars that were lining the walls, (having a very small job in the arse end of the music industry, as I did at the time, only attracted morons and demo tapes,
not the proto-sluts and rocks of crack the size of tennis balls as I always hope), when my ears pricked up.
The small studio next door to the office at S16 was a dark, freezing little whole which housed their small independent label.
As far as I knew they had released one 12”, earning a essential mix play and a place on a John Digweed Compilation, an achievement that made the ghouls of S16 gasp in awe.
As I sat there, frozen, and listening intently, I could barely comprehend what was happening.
To put it simply, I could hear a preposterously fantastic sound thumping through the wall.
I rushed out of the office and crashed through the door.
The poor label people looked like Middle East hostages who’d seen daylight for the first time in years.
Crouching in the corner with them was a gaggle of shifty souls who gave the instant impression of questionable sexual ambitions.
I came to know them collectively as h2so4..
FEED ME Due Out on
17th December
FIXATED
"Fixated" presents both the antitheses and the antidote to today’s capricious electronic music world, made up more of technological gimmickry than creative substance. Instead, H2SO4 build, put together, assemble and produce undaunted and evocative musical pieces made to thrill.
H2SO4’s forceful use of synths to create thundering atmospheres around danceable song structures awakes the monster in electronic music. Their industrial-like patchwork of throbbing beats, and growling synthesizers, wired to rock aesthetics and catchy pop melodies, sound as menacing and as inviting, as possibly the ear could imagine.
HEY STUPID
H2SO4 has crafted a bizarrely beautiful soundtrack for the times with Hey Stupid, one that evolves from simple alternative indie electronica to a string-soaked, multi-layered, orchestral dance realm that’s addictively uplifting.
Fifty seconds in and the soundscape intensifies, heavy fuzz and the weight of bass, distortion and rhythm unite to pierce through the air. Meanwhile that voice continues, addressing you, the masses, the nations who knowingly and seemingly without resolve revolve their existence around money.
SISTER ROBOT
Radio edit due for release in 2022
Tells the story of finding a robot abandoned by the Rriver, the last of her kind. Found by the river, taken home and tuned up.
NO POEMS OF MY OWN
NO POEMS OF MY OWN
Unreleased as yet. Tells the story of finding a robot abandoned by the Rriver, the last of her kind.
What would you do in that situation?
