PREMIERE: HCY - Pale Mono [SCOPÁVIK]
For the past 10 years, SCOPÁVIK has patiently & consistently established themselves as a key figure in their native South Korea. Their concept first originated on the dancefloor, as three friends, Scøpe, Xanexx & Ve Bogel, held a residency at vurt. in Seoul. Over the years the trio has built a distinct reputation with a tight-knit community of like-minded producers & DJs, & has been responsible for the Korean appearances of many of our favorite artists such as Woody92, Anthony Linell, Human Space Machine, Giorgio Gigli, Joachim Spieth, Refracted & more. In addition to domestic appearances, they’ve also begun to bring their sounds over to Europe as of recently, with a joint live set appearance as SCOPÁVIK Live at Garage Noord in Amsterdam back in November. You can listen to the full recording of their set here on their soundcloud.
They began releasing music as a label 8 years ago, almost to the day, & the label began as a platform for the founders’ own creations. The sound of SCOPÁVIK is characterized by a thick, crunchy & effervescent style of psychedelic 4/4 techno with a fervid groove, usually sitting within the 125 to 130 bpm range. It’s music that gets your body moving right from the start, with a big low end & repetitive loops & textures that you can almost reach out & grab. Stylistically the catalog sits slightly adjacent to the sounds of Psyk & his label Non Series, or Anthony Linell’s Northern Electronics, both of which are artists who’ve appeared on each of SCOPÁVIK’s compilations over the years. A lot of their sounds are derived from experiments with FM synthesis, wave-folding & careful filter play from the passionate modular synth collectors.
After more than a dozen releases, SCOPÁVIK proudly present HCY’s ‘Pale Mono’, the label’s first EP from an artist outside of the original trio. HCY makes regular appearances at vurt. & at SCOPÁVIK’s own events there, plus he was included on the most recent ‘Obsidian Tide’ compilation back in March of last year. ‘Pale Mono’ is very clearly a creature of this same musical ecosystem SCOPÁVIK has thoughtfully curated: stripped back & spacious with a low end growl & an icy groove. The EP includes 4 tracks from HCY as well as a deep, murky & hypnotic remix from Shoal.
‘Pale Mono’ releases digitally on SCOPÁVIK on January 28th. Readers in Seoul can catch HCY at vurt. on January 30th alongside Scøpe, Xanexx & Ve Bogel to celebrate the release.