VA - Candied Apples (2025)

Tzusing’s Sea Cucumber gang-up a group portrait of hard, grimy and industrial rave mutations by Async Figure, estoc x jondu, Sandy’s Trace, Kelvin T., Tera Octe

Six razor blade-secreted ‘Candied Apples’ foreground bite and pyrotechnics over groove, all ripe for the season. The producer fka Sudanim, Async Figure ratchets the drama from the front with the Amnesia Scanner-esque ‘Halloween Tool’, and Tera Octe (aka Jonquera) brings a taste of his screwed hardcore for PRR! PRR! to the lento-style slug ‘O-bi O-ba’.

Estoc x jondu impress best with the IMAX-scale sound design dynamic of ‘ENDESS TOMORROW’, and label bossman Tzusing yokes it to a 105BPM trample in ‘Mandy’ recalling Gatekeeper’s horror-skooled ‘Giza’ EP of 2010. Taiwanese unit Sandy’s Trace bring up the rear with a cyber-metal bone-grinder ‘Lacerating Skies’, and Kelvin T. channels Salem via AS on ‘Around the World.’