Katran – BL-3 [Blame Records]

Darko Kolar is an artist with multiple registers and a great commitment to the transgressive music scene. From Serbia, and for years now, he has been pumping out industrial techno all over Europe that was soon embraced by other producers and other platforms. He did this as a member of Ontal together with Boris Brenecki, and later as Katran and from his record project Jezgro. However, it is not fair to associate Darko’s figure only with industrial techno, as his musical spectrum is much broader, as he demonstrates with Jezgro, a label open to very diverse and extreme proposals, on which big names such as Merzbow or KK Null have been released.

This time, Katran releases his music on the Italian label Blame Records, and his musical proposal focuses on industrial techno but seen from different sound approaches. Because industrial techno is not only defined as a ruthless subgenre in which forcefulness prevails, but it has a much broader meaning and can be sonically adapted to different scenarios.

Decapitation is an EP that showcases three different approaches by the author himself, plus a reinterpretation by Greek producer ANFS. The first cut, BL-1, mixes the power and depth of the punch and the sub-bass of abrasive techno, with metallic rhythmic elements reminiscent of the contact of a hammer with an anvil, to which we must also add a degraded treatment of the rest of the textures. BL-2, on the other hand, remains in an industrial tessitura despite sounding neat and atmospheric, and although on this occasion techno predominates, the sonic nature of the accompanying elements is completely industrial. ANFS’s version of BL-1 is just as solid and powerful as the original track, although it opts for a syncopated rhythmic approach. BL-3 closes the album with a sonic concept that mixes different qualities, as the homogeneity of all the elements that are incorporated, together with the rhythmic robustness of the break, create a hypnotic and at the same time demolishing atmosphere.

Release date: March 11th, 2022.