Slikback – Attrition
Attrition is a hell of a way to spend one’s downtime, itself a product of patience for Slikback. The Kenyan producer crafted his latest album after moving to Poland while waiting for his visa, which kept him grounded rather than having the freedom to bring his frantic, electronic sound to a festival stage. It’s not the first time he’s found himself in visa limbo, and he’s been vocal about his frustrations in the past, but this moment of transition coincides with a more positive one: His first release for Planet Mu. And thus, a more intentional kind of structural approach emerged as a result, yielding a work of clarity from one of electronic music’s foremost masters of chaos.
The ninth release in the eclectic beatsmith’s prolific run of industrial-tinged bass and techno records, most of which have been direct-to-Bandcamp applications of theoretically danceable noisecraft, is at once Slikback’s most eclectic and accessible release, wrapping techno and bass bangers in his signature layers of static and haunted ambience. Slikback swings wide from moments of grace and beauty, such as the Actress-like ghostly twinkle of “Snow” to the percussive pummel of “Sekli,” wherein each kick thump feels like a body blow. But he connects the space between these poles with deceptively subtle details, melodic elements that creep and phase in, and a static charge that hangs in the air, no matter how restrained or explosive the composition.
Attrition showcases an immediacy that most of Slikback’s previous releases hinted at but rarely pursued so directly. Take first single “Taped,” with its hypnotic yet frantic rhythms, moments of suspenseful pause and even a more danceable structure, assuming your legs can move that fast. The industrial minefield of “Trars” seems to hew as close to HEALTH as it does to an ambient dub/techno artist like Andy Stott, and “Knot” delivers military-grade trap bolstered by machine-gun bass breaks. But it’s often when Slikback slows down and gives himself room to infuse his post-apocalyptic beatscapes, like with the gothic synth melodies of “Duality” or the eerie atmosphere of closer “Fracture,” that he reveals the full extent of his growth as an artist.
Unlikely though it might seem from the surface that an album that hits with such punishing impact can be viewed as one in which its creator slows down, opens up and offers a more cohesive encapsulation of his masterful mayhem, that’s exactly what he’s done here. Slikback, now married and soon to be a parent, describes the arc of these songs as “something alien emerging from emptiness—beauty from chaos.” Perhaps it’s not beauty in the most conventional sense that Slikback conjures on Attrition, but as he brings a new kind of grace to his intense creations, he arrives upon an arresting sound all the same.
Label: Planet Mu
Year: 2025
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Slikback : Attrition
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