Premiere: Kadahn – Arc Eye Matter

After releasing the excellent Silver Shadow of a Shrine on Hush Hush Recordings last month, New York-based producer Kadahn is back with Eraser Meditations, his arrival on Kastle’s Symbols label. A sprawling effort at 16 tracks, Eraser Meditations is made up of a series of short, sketch-like efforts, touching on bizarre, ephemeral grime and idiosyncratic beat work. Like label mate Kid Smpl (who has released on both Hush Hush and Symbols as well), Kadahn’s work has taken a harsher turn as late, pairing beatific melodic work with a busy, metallic aesthetic. “Arc Eye Matter” exhibits that approach perfectly, matching tinny steel drums and pleasant synth washes with grime’s characteristic machine gun snares and whooshing, swiping sound effects. The track swells and swells, but like the rest of the album, has no discernible drop or payoff, its constituent elements instead slowly dissolving into silence. Considering Kadahn’s source material, the effect is disarming in a deeply satisfying way, a non-combative conclusion to a series of motifs fraught with conflict and violence. Eraser Meditations is out June 16 via Symbols and if you pre-order it now, you’ll get three tracks instantly.