Overcome the darkness Swiss-style
Who They?
Simon Grab is the Swiss producer on a mission to shock you into action. Through garbling electronics and sharp sound design, he’s out to make “the soundtrack for the posthuman age, when new species arise and take over earth”. Past releases like EP ‘Extinction’ and ‘Anthropocene Panic’ show an artist unquestionably concerned with the end of times, but Grab’s music isn’t yet another eco-fatalist cinematic ode to oblivion. “Our sounds are war sirens against an ongoing disaster,” he says.
Why Simon Grab?
His latest album ‘[No] Surrender’ – a collaboration with Italian sociologist and experimental guitarist Francesco Giudici – is true to form. It blends the delicately plucked drone of an Oren Ambarchi tone with the china-rattling electronic throbs of Alessandro Cortini. Grab has spoken before of abusing his hardware, forcing him to rely on inexpensive Behringer mixers for live sets because of his fondness for throwing faders alarmingly far into the red. This tendency is viscerally evident on the track ‘Sirens’, where a noise blares unrelentingly, sounding like the Death Star turning on its axis.“‘[No] Surrender’ calls for awareness, resilience, and space for reflections,” says Grab. “It’s a story about mankind being trapped in a world poisoned by a failed system of power. It’s an urgent call to overcome the darkness.”
Tell Us More…
Another EP from Grab’s back catalogue that’s worth a listen is ‘Black Revolution’, released last year on Bristol label LAVALAVA. Made with regular collaborator, the Togolese lyricist Yao Bobby, who rattles over Grab’s discursive beat with venom and velocity, it refigures a decomposing beat with revolutionary speeches and field recordings taken during the pulling down of the Colston, Colombus and Leopold II statues across the world. If you need a bit more urgency in your life, look no further.
‘[No] Surrender’ is out on -OUS
