Premiere: Richard Fearless - Higher Electronic States

Death In Vegas man shares some analogue funk from his new techno label.

Richard Fearless is the mastermind of Death In Vegas, an indie band who formed in the early 1990s who have always been open to change, working in influences from techno to dub to krautrock to psychedelic rock into their music. Unlike many of the bands from that sort of time who seemed to embrace dance culture, Death In Vegas actually remained up-to-date with the new developments and trends that were occurring in dance music – and their own music evolved accordingly, putting them leagues ahead of those in the reunion circuit. Daniel Avery cites them as one of his biggest influences, while protégé Ghost Culture helped engineer their last album.

Fearless' newest project is Drone, a new label (or at least, newly-animated label – they actually put out a handful of D.I.V. offerings in 2004) dedicated to gurgling electronic tracks. Higher Electronic States is its first release and is a bit of burnt-out mutant analogue acid funk with a screeching drone buried under its jacked-up rhythm. Avery, Ghost Culture, Factory Floor, Erol Alkan, and Ivan Smagghe are all fans of the track, which should give you a small indication of the sort of corner of the dance music world that the track belongs to.