Fact Mix 886: Spekki Webu
Written by ADMIN on 19/12/2022
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing the lysergic sounds of Spekki Webu, chances are he was sending you into orbit. For his Fact mix, it’s clear we’re already there.
With a powerfully psychedelic blend of trance, techno and ambient Dutch DJ and producer Spekki Webu has continually explored the realms of immeasurably deep, totally immersive sound system alchemy, seeking to open up portals to transport you, body and soul, to somewhere else, oscillating on another plane of existence entirely. In the opening moments of his Fact mix, it’s clear we’re already there, drifting through deep space, enveloped in black hole drone, the dull light of distant stars suggesting itself in reverberant echoes, like condensation dripping in a cosmic ocean cave. “It’s a super tripped out one,” explains the artist, “taking it a bit back in the BPMs, which I haven’t been doing for a while. I have been going back into some rhythmic, noise-orientated music that has been inspiring me lately. Lots of movement and hypnotic repetitive sound design.” A ghostly hum begins to assert itself, an eerie surge of bass echo and spiralling tessellations of phantom whispers, the steady throb of a monolithic presence moving in the darkness, clanks, stutters and glitches signalling a creeping chorus of high-tensile twinges moving slowly up your spinal chord. Perhaps this is the Mirror Zone, the transformative space from which Spekki Webu’s influential imprint takes its name. “Mirror Zone is you and me, it’s life,” the artist told Patterns Of Perception. “Everybody has a journey with his or her inner self throughout life. I have seen a few very good friends within my inner circle change so beautifully as human beings. That’s what really gets me inspired, that is the Mirror Zone for me.”
“Endless back and forth.
Fragmented memories.
Reconstructed dimension, new beginning.“
“It lifts off at a certain point in the mix,” continues Spekki Webu, “balancing between minimalistic hypnotism and more trance state textures with a shamanic twist for everybody, in all dimensions. The mix consists of my own tracks, tracks by friends, and upcoming label material. I have been experimenting with a hybrid setup, so the mix is hybrid recorded, mixing tunes while playing sound structures, rhythms and sound design live.” From out of the shadow the muffled sounds of bludgeoning kick drums ooze into focus, smudged until almost unrecognisable, addled chatter and voice floating through the soundscape like smoke. This faint suggestion of hardcore pressure unfurls as a nod to the artist’s formative years tripping between hard techno and gabber raves in Delft, Rotterdam and The Hague, something he cites as one of the primary inspirations behind his love of all things dark and psychedelic. “Experiencing how artists tried to push themselves time and time again to break boundaries, be unique and have an identity – to do what they really wanted to do and show such dedication – has been very inspiring and important for my mindset as an artist and label owner,” he has said. “The experimental and psychedelic part that comes from there is definitely something that has stuck with me as well within my style. In and around the country there were sound systems doing illegal raves, often playing harder styles and having a very psychedelic touch.”
“Vacated soul.
Reborn into the new.
Not how, but why?“
As more urgent percussive textures begin to take shape, hefty drums vibrating bones and internal organs, reminding us once more of terrestrial weight through stellar webs of static, Spekki Webu tilts into a one-way stream of forward momentum, disparate elements swirling together into more familiar configurations. Building to a relentless chug towards clarity, a mushroom-tinged techno pulse reveals itself slowly, the bright glow of a luminous planet swimming into focus on the event horizon. Shifting between jet black rattle and gauzy aquatic textures, IDM trills and ticks bobbing across the mix like eye floaters, our pulse suddenly quickens, our direction is set, a plunge back into the gravitational pull of solid ground. An interplay between dread ambience shot through with shadowy percussive charge and moments of illumination evoke stars streaking past into space, while gradually, from the darkness, a profoundly somatic groove winds its way to the surface. Phasing through patches of light and shade, riding a raging stratospheric tide of tension, Spekki Webu darts between polyrhythms before opening out onto this new planet’s surface, hurtling into chasms of sub bass and deep trenches of alien sound design. As though staring through mist into the sun of a new world a sequence of melancholy, piano-laced trip hop haze sets a new scene, before Spekki Webu releases the rhythm of our descent entirely, making contact with a textural coda of glitched-out ambient, caught in the overlap of extraterrestrial radio signals, a new sound from a new place.
“Ending cycle.
Field of Eternity.
Into the light.“
Enter the Mirror Zone on Instagram, Bandcamp and SoundCloud. You can find Spekki Webu on Instagram. All poetry by Spekki Webu.
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