OBSCUUR is proud to welcome back the excellent Liza Aikin, after her stellar contribution to the “Withered Tales” album. Liza returns with her own release, a take on industrial techno named “Infirm Past”.
Her signature brand of techno spans over two original tracks, a force of sound cemented by how well it blends with the remix efforts of Swarm Intelligence and VSK. This is an EP covering all grounds, from immersive techno to harder-edge dance floor percussion.
First up is “Hospital Bed”, club ready and on the harder end of the scale, it delivers increasingly frustrating emotions through percussion packed with field recordings literally from the mechanisms within hospital machines. Swarm Intelligence adds the remix favour, with a growling bassline and broken techno cuts.
“Enclave” follows up, with a sophisticated palette of layered pounding rhythms. Glued together with a hypnotically morphing melody, VSK steps up to the plate for the remix, plastering his well-known sound all over and slowing the drums to achieve a pure meditative hallucination.
Liza Aikin consistently strives to push her sound in new directions, the known mixing with the unknown, making this EP a rewarding listening experience both at the club and at home.
LIZA AIKIN
The unique imaginary world in which Liza Aikin moves stems in classical music, and a driving desire of composing music soundscapes which carry us to reminders of her own memories. Liza has a classical music background and started playing violin when she was 8 years old. Her passion wavers in between film noir atmosphere, old analogue music instruments and modular synthesizers, which Liza combines with her field recording skills, taking the creation to a level of detailed layering to a raw composition of sound without words, bringing energy in place disguised as music.
Not long after moving to Berlin, Liza followed her dream of working in the audio industry. By being exposed to the core of technology at Ableton, her interest moved on to production, to craft the perfect piece missing in her sets and creating the sound and the atmosphere she was looking for.
Berlin became her scene for exploring historic abandoned buildings and industries, where she constantly looks for field recordings. Her mission is to create her new sonic collage using her production techniques and sentiment. Often traveling to capture sounds linked to places with an emotional or evocative meaning, Liza Aikin production’s moves away from the linearity of modern techno, to take a characteristic narrative form. Succeeding more than 10 years of djing, Liza Aikin released her debut EP on Emetic Uk in 2017. Liza brings concrete textures, gritty beats and hard hitting distortions, blended with superb intricacy to create truly original tracks. In addition to top up the creative force, she involved No-oN who made a video filmed inside the factory where many of the sounds were recorded, giving vision to the elements of the composition.
Her second release Versailles, released on Rebekah’s Decoy Records, brings together a variety of unexpected jet interesting metallic field recordings, blended with powerfully built kicks, this combination sparked interest across many artists and channels landing the tracks to be played on BBC Radio 1.
Last but not least in this ep we find two remixes from Taakaki itho and Rory st. John which bring the sonic experience to a complete picture. Liza Aikins contributed with the track “Les Visage” to the Hardersmart compilation of Mord Records. Here the listener is brought into a story like track, where a melodic jet melancholic start surprise you with hard hitting accents and powerful warehouse kicks and bass lines.
Most recently she was featured on HOR with a live set for the Obsuur record showcase. Following the closing of all clubs and music venues due to the pandemic, she was invited to be featured on United we stream filmed by ARTE concert. For the occasion she performed a live set at Monom in Funkhaus Berlin.
Liza Aikin musical research continues always, and strikes for her passion and freshness.
OBSCUUR RECORDS
OBSCUUR Records is a Utrecht-based independent record label based on harsh techno sounds. From the classically influenced to industrial heavy and rave flavoured music, OBSCUUR creates releases with those it deems to be on the cutting edge of new music.
The label has hosted many well-known names before they’ve entered wider consciousness and its ability to recognize the next wave of artists has kept it at the forefront of the underground techno conversation for many years.
From I HATE MODELS to Aahan, Tim Tama to Mickey Nox, the only thing that matters to OBSCUUR is the music. If the label has selected an artist for release then you can be sure they should be listened to.
