Slovakian electronic adventures
Who They?
The alter ego of Slovakian producer Samo Štefanec, Bulp is currently sitting at a crossroads on a multi-genre journey to discover his musical identity. Starting life as the aural foil to the sweet vocals of Jana Salvi on some largely unremarkable chilled electropop, Bulp’s ‘Parvin’ EP from last year added a wider sonic palette to tracks like ‘Auri’, a soulful, blend of dubstep and Radiohead at their electronic height. Now solo, Štefanec is using his live shows to experiment for future releases.
Why Bulp?
Having witnessed Bulp perform in the shadow of a grain silo in Bratislava, there is something special developing here. Štefanec is mining electronic music history, revelling in experimentalism, and delivering it with dancefloor euphoria. Everything from Vangelis synths to jungle bass and minimal techno via dubstep, rave, trip hop and, when he sings, pure synthpop, is packed in. Secretive about new work, the one track he has shared with us, simply called ‘?’, suggests a downbeat Prodigy with a kinetic synth line and future bass warmth.
Tell Us More…
Bulp is part of the Deadred Records family, which for 20 years has been responsible for releasing a raft of interesting Slovak electronic music. This small scene is interchangeable in its collaborations. Labelmate Vlado Ďurajka, aka audiovisual project Autumnist, provides poignant, gorgeous images for the current Bulp live show and Štefanec is collaborating on music for the next Autumnist album, out early next year. His current project, composing the soundtrack to a forthcoming TV documentary, is also opening his work up to exploring the classic sounds of TV library electronic music. How this will all materialise into new Bulp music remains to be seen, but the journey is already quite the ride.
For more, see bulp.bandcamp.com
