The latest hard-hitting 4-track EP from ABRAX urges you to utterly wake up – and stay awake.

In our current Anthropocentric time, we are increasingly programmed into numbing submission and hive-mind thinking, as a distraction from the unbearable realities we find ourselves within on a daily basis. This new self-titled 12” from the Berlin-based artist and vinyl imprint presents four raw cuts to stimulate a rise against this sense of apathy and exhaustion.

Avoiding any well-trodden paths of standard 4/4 techno, ABRAX001 is testament to how deeply the artist sees techno as an instrument for change. The title of the introductory track itself gives a clue: Anamnesis is a term meaning the recollection of a previous existence – hinting at that bell that you hear in the distance of your mind, (and within the track), to remind you of your real purpose in life and even that of your possible past lives. But we sometimes find ourselves ignoring that little reminder – going through life’s motions, forgetting about our true purpose and essence. The sound of the bell is reintroduced again at the end of the track, which gives us hope that we can thrust beyond the dancefloor and drive ourselves towards transcendence. After this sonic and thematic introduction, we are then propelled headlong into the second track, Intervention, with its driving bass and recurring shaker, interrupting spirals of mental toxicity. On the B side, the first track Storm is Coming, aches into being with a driving bassline and an acid line, giving the sense of an impending storm – a warning of something brewing within us which was, until now, not-yet-realised. The final track is Breakism – that impetus within all of us to break the walls, barriers, preconceived ideas of a so-called “status quo”. Building constant tension until the drop, the growling, snarling bass finally unleashes itself with a wave of disruption.

In a world where humans are beaten into soporific submission, ABRAX as an artist, an imprint, and a 4-track release, is a well-overdue wake-up call.