Friday 9/18: Slikback—"FAZA"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Ugandan electronic producer Slikback.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Ugandan electronic producer Slikback.
Slikback—“FAZA”
Eli Enis:
Slikback is an electronic producer from Uganda who makes grimy, industrial trap music that feels at once primal and utterly alien to this world. “FAZA” is a new track that he contributed to a recent Beirut benefit compilation that was put together by the Tunisian electronic magazine Ma3azef, and it’s one of the most crushingly intense dance songs I’ve heard in a long time. The seven-minute cut is filled with noises that sound like a warehouse fan challenging its screws to vibrate out of their sockets. Its drop is a chorus of scrapes, rattles, and buzzes over a jackhammer trap beat, gyrating until it malfunctions into cavernous ambiance, delayed throbs of feedback, and banshee-like howls. If you thought Blanck Mass was apocalyptically epic, wait until you hear Slikback.
Eric Bennett:
There are a lot of instances in which I would likely not gel with a seven-minute experimental electronic track, as I often find myself put off by this sort of thing. I turn to music for fun, or to make myself feel things. This actually does elicit an emotion for me, and that emotion is, weirdly, fear. “FAZA” is visceral, the only noises that feel human are grunts and moans that are so deep in the mix they seem to be grasping to get out. This is the sound that would fill the score of a movie that maybe is too high brow to call itself horror but still filled with a deep dread. I can’t say this will be a frequent rotation for me, but it’s evocative and stunning.