{"title":"ESP Institute","description":"\u003cp\u003eLabel run by [a=Andrew Hogge] aka [a=Lovefingers].\r\nDistribution by Above Board Distribution.\r\nBased in Los Angeles, California.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"follow-me-inc-jay-glass-dubs-remix","title":"Follow Me (Inc. Jay Glass Dubs Remix)","description":"\u003cp\u003eGround is an Osaka native, but his soul is truly that of a nomad, traversing the planet, befriending kindred spirits found in humans, animals and plants. He is exceptionally receptive to the beauty in everything that surrounds him—the incidental music of a city street, the orchestral chaos of a scrambling radio, the syncopated grace of migrating birds, the simplicity of an isolated hand clap—and as his roadmap continuously unfolds, he accumulates a vast catalogue of visceral tools to musically recount his experiences. \u003ci\u003eSunizm\u003c\/i\u003e is a cross section of the artist’s process—an array of complex microcosms overlapping to comprise a thematic whole—gathering field recordings, found instruments, jagged electronics, synthesized chanting, and weaving all into a dense narrative that appears obsessively constructed yet divinely improvised. \u003ci\u003eFollow Me\u003c\/i\u003e, the second of two singles surrounding the album, is complimented with a pseudo drum’n’bass treatment by enigmatic Greek artist Jay Glass Dubs, as well as a massively triumphant b-side entitled \u003ci\u003eOzone House\u003c\/i\u003e, which is exclusive to this single release. Attention all humans, animals and plants, Ground and the ESP Institute present, \u003ci\u003eSunizm\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50426192757067,"sku":"1077912","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"cells","title":"Cells","description":"\u003cp\u003eBenedikt Frey makes an anticipated return to the ESP Institute. After leisurely toying with themes around this fourth release with the label, which follows his 2017 debut album \u003ci\u003eArtificial\u003c\/i\u003e, a dense nihilistic fog seems to have enveloped his creative process and undoubtedly informed his frame of mind. The approach here is perhaps more minimal than the artist’s previous endeavors — reducing music to skeletal loops, allowing their character to develop and fluctuate over the course of each piece — a confidence that exemplifies an artist hitting their stride, but in no way does he rely on the trope of “less is more”. Whereas a minimalist embellishes the importance of elements through their isolation and negative space, Benedikt fills every facet with granular measures of sound and sifts them, in a cyclical motion, through his spectral arrangements. The title \u003ci\u003eCells\u003c\/i\u003e speaks to the unadulterated path from which Frey cultivates complex gestures utilizing limited means — stretching singular organisms to their furthest limits, breaching their brink of stability and inciting cancerous mutations — proving time and again his mastery of tonal nuance and fearless embrace of distortion. Each of these four songs deliver a despondent poetry, predominantly abstract, but occasionally complimented by verbal commands from dystopian futures, such as the blanketing repetitive chants in 'Interlinked' that conjure images of labor, assembly lines and infrastructural erosion, or the intercom punctuations throughout \u003ci\u003eSubstance B\u003c\/i\u003e that refer to the “world’s future” which, when juxtaposed over such dark melodies and gritty drums, allude to science fiction, Film Noir and a post-apocalyptic existence. As the winter approaches, the melancholy grows very real, and we swoon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50431211110731,"sku":"1081253","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/725a2f5f-2984-44e4-8b12-bd6409b15636_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726856469"},{"product_id":"punch","title":"Punch","description":"\u003cp\u003eDALO aka Nadia D’Alò emerged at the ESP Institute in 2018 with a brutal remix for Benedikt Frey’s Private Games. Having been floored by her sinister aesthetic and stripped-back approach to production, as well as being long time fans of INIT (her collaborative project with Benedikt), the ESP institute was compelled to commission a dedicated solo work. Across four beastly tracks, Nadia pulls from a gritty palette of instrumentation, combining ritualistic drums, industrial percussion and scratchy acid lines with a blurry montage of demonic sighs and whispers. The result is deeply hypnotic. As we slip into the abyss of her psyche, we attempt attaching to the repetitive instrumentation, clinging to what’s familiar for a sense of security, however, every element in Nadia’s world betrays us as it slowly mutates and slips from our grasp, leaving us in a perpetual state of bewilderment. Similar to a deep dream or a heavy trip, incidents in the music replay on mental loop, accumulating layer upon layer of subconscious meaning, deteriorating our senses until we’re completely removed from our safe zone. It's precisely this dose of danger that keeps the listener inquisitive and on-edge, a potent potion that Nadia has proven effective without over-cooking or adding extraneous ingredients. On the surface, there is an admirable dryness to her tonality, even through the intermittent tape echoes, detuned vocals and haunted smears of reverb, the music is never drowning. Such achievements are the marks of a bold and confident artist, one whose firm grasp of a particularly psychedelic craft supports a warped command of nuance. It’s with great pleasure we find DALO’s agenda aligns so strongly with the ESP Institute.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50448547643723,"sku":"1078697","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f7e499ec-85b2-4469-b534-52ebe6a0c569_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727093030"},{"product_id":"know-the-future-digital-warfare","title":"Know The Future \/ Digital Warfare","description":"\u003cp\u003ePatrick Conway keeps a low profile and wobbles through the alleyways. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A’s Know The Future is properly moody, a UK rave track skirting the fringe of everything we hold dear from the days of our youth—big grey melancholy chords, mild shuffling breaks and anonymous diva cries peppered sparsely throughout—yet the artist manages to skillfully tick our nostalgia boxes whilst avoiding the road into full-blown pastiche. It's a versatile track, easily suitable for both the early hours in the warehouse or the tender drive home where your terrible Tuesday awaits. On the flip side, Patrick continues his plunge into emotional depths, summoning layers of ghostly sighs, chopping up the beats in half time and introducing a more prominent use of bass, but midway through Digital Warfare he jettisons the angelic pleasantries in favor a more deranged headspace. He’s had us swallow the wrong pills, sending us through a labyrinth of mirrors and echoes for the second half of the track, only to partially find our footing in the last minute. These two songs will send you to another time and place.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50468399612235,"sku":"1076742","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3a408e8b-a2af-44ad-aa29-072feb9531d0_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727347681"},{"product_id":"melencholia-v","title":"Melencholia V","description":"\u003cp\u003eKoehler was hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A recalls the hazy memory of an ear-worm chant heard over a decade ago on the streets of Thailand, a melody that since haunted the artist and has finally been exorcised by his own hand in the shape of 'Melencolia V'. Somewhere between an enchanted bashment and a sailor’s watering hole, Koehler found a gargantuan kick drum that lands solely on the 4, slammed it together with a wide pulsing bassline and brutalized Dancehall snare, then laced it all up with his elusive synth melody. Add to this a generous sprinkle of finely-ground cosmic dust and we’re all tripping the light fantastic. On the flip side, the artist buckles up for a rough and rapid-paced journey with 'Invidiosa' — a relentless snare scrapes, gouges and corrodes over 7 minutes, coupling with a simplistic bass loop and swiftly marauding through a demented assembly line, accumulating various nuts and bolts of instrumentation along the way — an undeniable dancefloor exciter for those hours when the club becomes unhinged, dancing becomes raving, and slightly more audacious folk can channel their inner truth. These two songs will have you question your existence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50489067110731,"sku":"2030068","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a2091389472_16_ae4489fb_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727635898"},{"product_id":"osmin-uratoma","title":"Osmin Uratoma","description":"\u003cp\u003eLemmi Ash is a Swedish duo comprised of producers Samo and Martinou, and their debut EP with ESP Institute, \u003ci\u003eOsmin Uratoma\u003c\/i\u003e, has been a long time coming. Samo has been a friend of the family since prior to the institute’s inception — dropping in on us in NYC, occasionally as a guest DJ at The Stallions’ residency in Chinatown — and ever since those halcyon days in the late Noughties, we’ve been slowly circling a moving target, poking at his potential contribution to the label. It wasn’t until recently, when fellow Stockholm depth-charger Martinou stepped into the picture, that stars finally aligned and Lemmi Ash was born. Now a steadily growing lovechild, the collaboration displays a finely balanced ratio of the duo’s DNA, complimentary in both aesthetic and character. Across four seemingly disparate tracks, we can sense Samo’s penchant for Dub is subliminally leading the way — from minimal organ stabs and off-kilter hi-hats on the relentlessly pounding A\u003ci\u003epsu\u003c\/i\u003e, to the hybrid-Dancehall rhythm box and hazy familiar vocal snippets on the late night stormer \u003ci\u003eTo Dare Is To Do\u003c\/i\u003e — while Martinou’s masterful brush is a bit more broad and subtle, shifting the shape of Lemmi’s arsenal into a deep and ethereal Techno head-space full of warm pads, softened percussion and sub bass on both the iconic \u003ci\u003eLemmie Ash Theme\u003c\/i\u003e and the EP’s melancholy closer, \u003ci\u003eHorror Vacui\u003c\/i\u003e. The artists explain that this music was “made with birds in mind” — a somewhat poetic and abstract notion which (to us) symbolizes their stoned veil of indifference, a carefree fluidity of influences, and an ease of traversing stylistic positions — alluding to the rewards of an effortless and non-compulsory collaboration, a genuine creative simpatico.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESP Institute","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50508440174923,"sku":"1073854","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/cffd721f-9519-4e8a-a89e-63955beb3bd5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727858816"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_1cb837bf_thumbnail_4096_485257ce-ec4a-4c0b-995a-ffefa3c8f0db.jpg?v=1726803947","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/esp-institute.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}