So the story goes like this…
“Jon Drukman (Bass Kittens) and Tim Soete (The Fucking Champs) were working together at GameSpot in the late 90s. They discovered a shared love of jungle and drum and bass music. Tim laid down some sick drum beats which Jon then took into the studio and processed through an arsenal of gear.”
Straightforward enough, right?
What’s curious about Infinite Hand is that this five-song EP was originally made in 1997 but has only recently been made available digitally.
From the opener, Blowjob, it’s definitely a blast from the heyday of Drum and Bass. But that’s not to say that this is some tired throwback.
While it has what you would expect from the genre, aggressive bombastic percussion assaults, the phrasings of the minimalist synths and samples makes for a compelling listen. It’s easy to get sucked into the dark, almost hypnotic textures as they weave and bob around the beats.
No two tracks sound alike, each with its own statement to make, proof that even a technology-dependent genre such as DnB still has room for craftsmanship and songwriting.
The popularity of DnB is on a major upswing lately. Infinite Hand was there when the original scene went down. Sadly I suspect that this EP is a one-shot deal, but Infinite Hand deserves a place in the any hard electronica library.
– Jaret S. Young
https://basskittens.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-hand
