Daniel Szwed - Splinter [Rope Worm 009]

Another fresh album released by the Polish label Rope Worm on September 24th, 2k25 is "Splinter", the sophomore longplay outing by Daniel Szwed who is collaborating with a set of guest artists on the six tracks and roughly 28 minutes spanning release which, one at a time, chime in both with instruments like piano or flutes as well as with lyrics, providing additional layers to Szwed's electric, electrified and electrifying sonic explorations. With "S1 (With Jessica)" we're entering a dark, spatial and nerve-wrecking realm of hyper-compressed Post-Bassmusic with an intense Industrial twist immediately evoking vantablack memories of Mick Harris' Scorn project whereas "S2 (With Natalia Gorecka)" brings forth creeping and claustrophic, yet metallic and futuristic sounding Rhythm Industrial before "S3 (With Mala Herba)" seems to fuse a rhythmic approach taken from genres like Clicks'n'Cuts with tectonic low end shifts and spine-tingling whispers emerging from dark corners of the listeners mind. Furthermore "S4 (With Liam Andrews)" further explores the realm of Post-Bassmusic meets Broken Techno in a super stripped down musical format which might at times even resonate with fans of Deadbeat in his darkest and most nihilistic moments, "S5" - the sole solo work on this album - caters an amalgamation of electric buzzing, earth shaking bass music and mind numbing drums all falling together in what can be described as time-dissolving Illbient nothingness before "S6 (With Mala Herba)", once again, rounds things off in a rather enchanted, ethereal and almost spiritual way with Mala Herba's multilayered vocals epicly floating atop Szwed's brooding rhythm and bass foundation, breaking through the wall of sound like a first ray of sunlight breaking through turbulent and fast moving clouds after a heavy storm. Highly recommened, this!

Album artwork on Instagram!