- People don't usually associate Berlin with breakcore, but the city was once stacked with it, thanks to labels like Ad Noiseam, clubs like Subland and nights like Densehall and Jason Forest's confetti-loaded Birthday Party. Aside from Birthday Party, which recently returned to celebrate its tenth anniversary at Urban Spree, everything I've just listed no longer exists. The scene isn't dead, far from it—it's just more covert than ever. Monolog and Swarm Intelligence—the artists behind Diasiva—are both active members of this underground community. Solo, Swarm Intelligence crafts harsh industrial techno, while Monolog has released two albums—a gnarled drum & bass LP for Subtrakt and a more experimental record for Hymen—already this year. Their Diasiva project is more freeform, as last year's intensely rough Doublefade album attests.
Station 1805 is more polished but no less menacing. There's a bright, melodic core fighting to escape the whirring, grinding, pummelling clutches of "Ethereal." "Scrape" has delicate details that similarly offset the vehement surge that steers it. "Neckbrace" sticks the pair's cranky, fouled-up sound design to a 4/4 beat, which should appeal to rowdy techno heads. "Stifle Your Woes" is a lurching, doom-laden closer that shows Diasiva are just as competent composing cinematic soundtracks as they are they blasting holes in a dance floor.
Tracklist01. Ethereal
02. Scrape
03. Neckbrace
04. Stifle Your Woes