Blawan

(This article's English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

For more than fifteen years, Jamie Roberts has been moving through the underground of British techno. Starting from an unusual teenage background spent breeding insects, he built himself from the ground up and became a recognisable figure in the most abrasive side of club music. Whether through the Karenn project with Pariah or his solo work, Blawan has established himself as an institution of industrial techno, a natural heir to the path traced by Regis and Surgeon.

“SickElixir” follows his 2018 debut “Wet Will Always Dry” and a long run of EPs designed for the most claustrophobic dancefloors. Released on XL, the album is an oppressive work, where post-cybernetic noise collides with wonky rhythms, real seismic shocks able to overwhelm both headphones and sound systems, supported by a level of technical control few can match. Intelligible voices, corroded by a post-human society, intertwine with martial fractures; the sound takes on a mechanical and futuristic shape, layered over UK bass influences twisted by overdrive.

There is no intro, no transitional outro. The album goes straight to the point, with short track lengths, often just two to four minutes. The formulas used can sometimes feel similar to one another. Sub-bass tones rise like distorted monoliths, almost organic in their trembling through saturation and hiss, and when set against a controlled but suffocating layer of noise they create oppressive, openly transhuman environments.

Perhaps this is also where the album shows its limits. Blawan’s language remains one of the most recognisable in today’s electronic landscape, a kind of alliance between Death Grips and Arca filtered through a techno-bionic sensibility (“Style Teef”). Still, beyond the refined surface of brutally crafted sound architectures, there is the sense of a proto-manifesto waiting to take a more definite shape. There are exceptions, such as the metallic, syncopated dub-swing of “Don't Worry We Happy”, a possible high point of the record, and a second half that feels more convincing.

Here lies the main tension of the album: on one side, short tracks and relentless distortion; on the other, an overall listening experience that does not always carry through to the end. Not because of excessive weight, but because the language itself still seems to be searching for a deeper level of layering. If this is the direction, the next step could be the decisive one.

22/01/2026