Regardless of what some narrow-minded drips may say within social media comment sections, electronic and heavy music are genres forever entwined. After all, what other genres can trigger such primal, violent and visceral reactions in people? There’s just something about these two styes of music that activates something ancient and hardwired. 601, the project of Nat Slater and George Miller, know this oh-too well.
Founded in 1993 just as UK EDM reached peak cultural prominence, whilst 601 are an entity rooted in the fertile grounds of breakbeat and jungle, they are a project that take inspiration from the primordial power of extreme music. It’s this willingness to mare sounds and take inspiration from more shadowed corners of music that has allowed them to commender stages at Glastonbury, Glade and Beat Herder whilst performing sessions for Radio 1 and even Kiss 100. But it’s their new record We Are Not The Same that embodies this creative ethos of taking inspiration from the dark.
Dropping following a much needed break, We Are Not The Same is a record rich in inspiration and abundant with guest features. Containing collaborations with members of Hidden Mothers, Din Of Celestial Birds, Fakeyourdeath, Tribe of Ghosts, DeathCollector and Concrete Hyena that have been facilitated via Miller’s work in music journalism, this is a dirty, unsanitised and grounded record that forgoes the artificial sheen and plastic lacquer that has come to long plague both electronic and contemporary heavy music.
Instead, We Are Not The Same embraces the sweat that is synonymous with both independent live spaces and the frantic energy that comes from collaboration with likeminded artists. From the spaciousness and ponderous moments that carry the ambience and atmosphere of post rock to the frenzied passages of jungle and breakbeat, We Are Not The Same is a record most brilliant and genuine. It’s a record perfect for junglists long deep in the reeds and fans of left-field experimental ambient music alike, an album that carries the tangible energy that can only come from collaboration and from an artist that has a need to create something genuine and provocative.
We Are Not The Same is released tomorrow independently. 601 will also be appearing behind the decks between sets at Hidden Mother’s hometown headline show with Din Of Celestial Birds, Pleiades and Baosbheinn at the Yellow Arch, Sheffield, on November 21st. Find tickets here. In the mean time however, stream We Are Not The Same a day early exclusively below.