Watch: Dour Tonic Input “Immaculate Stone 0.9”

11 Jun 2014 — Henning Lahmann

Presumably a side project by Broken20 regular Production Unit (at least if my anagram skills are reliable), Dour Tonic Input's Yogyakarta not only references the elusive musician's purported hometown but most notably all takes native Javan Gamelan styles as the scaffolding for his particularly ruptured beat missives. The result is a roughly half-hour, nine-track assemblage of almost classic hip-hop breaks that by and large shun any melodic ornaments, instead contemplating on repetitive patterns of subtly exotic percussion that slowly evolve into a surprisingly cathartic aural experience that seems curiously out of fashion. If you take a listen, and we recommend you do, don't miss out on unassuming standout "Sick Violins". For now however get lost in the meditative visuals for "Immaculate Stone 0.9", a track that serves as an apt introduction to Dour Tonic Input's subtle approach that shouldn't be misunderstood as vapid appropriation or even orientalist kitsch embedded in shallow romanticism.

Yogyakarta marks the a-side of a split cassette together with DJ Votive, whose broken house one-track side Dead Roads is so troubled and desolate and submerged that we'd use the word 'hypnagogic' if we didn't know better.

Yogyakarta/Dead Roads is out June 23 on Broken20's cassette subsidiary Broken60. It's the sublabel's fourth release and has catalogue number B60_03. Feel free to think about that for a while (but don't ask us, really).