Chontane

Chontane

He started in Berlin at nineteen, on a Krach residency in the park at Humboldthain, and the rooms kept getting further from home: Tresor and RSO, Bret and Radion in Amsterdam, FOLD in London, Fuse in Brussels, Basement in New York. Ukrainian by family, Berliner by upbringing, he works a floor on percussion above everything, techno that keeps sliding into breaks and electro.

He came up through sound design, and it shows in how the records are built: sub-bass with real weight, meticulous texture, percussion sharp enough to feel the edges of. Dense and layered, aimed at the body, demanding about it. Early two-thousands techno carried forward rather than quoted. In April, Mutual Rytm opened a sub-label with Versus 001, his split with Regent.

Grounding Factor

Chontane

Reclaim Your City runs out of Rotterdam by way of Berlin and has spent seven hundred-odd podcasts scanning the underground for whoever is worth hearing. July went to Chontane.

Two hours and twenty three minutes at full tilt. Kick drums with real mass, snares that land like something heavy hitting concrete, analogue bursts flaring at the edges, and a science fiction shape underneath that keeps closing in. Every bar sets up a threat the next one delivers.

Reclaim Your City 703

Chontane

Tbilisi's Bassiani has had him behind the decks, and in March it gave him podcast 303.

Flat out from the start, layering as it climbs, and you get to the top on his terms. Your legs will feel it, but so will your attention. Nothing repeats long enough to settle into, and every section asks you to follow something new.

Bassiani Podcast #303

Refuge Friday: AGÄPĒ

Refuge built the room around its sound system, four ten-foot stacks pointed inward at the dancers. Chontane brings live hardware and a nineties kick under the breaks, JKS keeps chaos on a short leash, BENZA goes raw and futurist, Diossa opens it out into afro house. Four ways into the same night.

• Chontane Breaks tearing through the kick
• JKS Chaos held on a tight leash
• BENZA Futurist techno built to land
• Diossa Afro house threaded into techno

Before the Curfew 23

OBSCURE: Road to Twisted Lines

This is OBSCURE marking the road to Twisted Lines Festival, and they have kept the bill to two. Chontane runs live hardware, tribal patterns under a nineties kick, and Setaoc Mass answers in hypnotic techno refined across fifteen years. Six hours between them, which is enough to get properly lost.

• Chontane Breaks tearing through the kick
• Setaoc Mass Hypnotic techno filed smooth

CLR Podcast 431

Chontane [LIVE]

Chicago closes the US tour. Chontane goes live again, electro creeping in at the edges, while Jason Patrick carries Detroit spirit in Chicago hands, a former Spybar resident who now anchors Astral Undertones. Malisan works groovy and hypnotic in the same breath. Auris Presents put it on.

• Chontane Breaks tearing through the kick
• Jason Patrick Detroit soul in Chicago hands
• Malisan Groove that circles and holds

Sitka