home / fresh-juice /
Posted on February 6, 2023
FRESH JUICE: ‘Mechanicus’ by HARD FANTASY (All Centre)
HARD FANTASY lands on the ever elusive All Centre with a heavy pelt of low end bass experimentations.
Words by Oisín Campbell/ Design by Michael Savage
Buy/ Stream here: hardfantasy.bandcamp.com/album/mechanicus
All Centre enters 2023 with London based HARD FANTASY who delivers a raucous adventure through sound in the deeply tense bass sphere that is ‘Mechanicus’.
After a flurry of impressive self-released singles dating as far back as 2016’s ‘Iwf’ (see here: hardfantasy.bandcamp.com/track/lwf-2016), HARD FANTASY and their prevalent sound really came to assertiveness with their 2021 self-titled debut EP on High NRG (see here: Hard Fantasy EP ). Their fantastical approach to bass focused club music has proven to create an ethereal pallet of energies, all sonically tuned and built towards the dance.
HARD FANTASY’s debut appearance on All Centre begins with the steady rumble of ‘Mechanicus A’. A controlled and measured tempo of vibrating pads and thudding kicks that rest assured with splurging synth effects and further dense backdrops making for an intriguing combination of bass and braindance.
‘Rogue Advisor’ replaces its predecessor’s weighted kick fills for a more organic sounding drum pattern running at a stately pace amidst an industrial sequencing landscape.
(Pictured: HARD FANTASY)
Arriving after the beat focused opening, the midway point ‘Age Of Traditions’ showcases the mystical side of HARD FANTASY’s productions and their ability to create dreamy yet atmospheric soaked ambient.
‘Comhex’ returns the vibe to the hard drum chug zone that has for so long been synonymous with All Centre releases. Piercing kicks once again emerge colliding with gothic synth work and dark channeled vocals.
It’s a similar panel beating affair on the EP’s closer as ‘Mechanicus B’ fluctuates between revolving kicks and off-kilter pads amidst a fragile backdrop of delicate chords that slowly wither until they timely fade out. It feels as dramatic as it does soothing as HARD FANTASY’s angelic downtempo capabilities are laid out in full.
Mechanicus delivers in its rotation of ground shaking percussion and atmospheric sound design giving an outlook into the energy that can be created within the combination of club & downbeat.
HARD FANTASY crafts a multitude of energies into each track and it is something that has become apparent in all of their productions to date, leaving their meeting with the All Centre imprint seeming fated.
Discover more of Hard Fantasy here: Music | HARD FANTASY
Discover more of All Centre here: All Centre ‘All Centre is a record label from DJ Pitch, Simkin & Sobolink’.