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Psonikadia, aka Nick Aitchison, is producer from Brighton who's regularly seen performing around the city at some of the most well respected nights going. Most recently he played at the Beat Redemption gig in support of Starkey and Darkstar. It's not hard to pigeon-hole Psonikadia's style, but it would negate all the hard work that has clearly gone into his music. On the surface the framework is dubstep - however the complex structuring and strong hints of other genre influences make this music slightly more compelling than your average dancefloor dubstep banger. The obvious dubstep elements are there - offbeat drum patterns, dark atmospheres, heavy basslines and the obligatory abundance of delay on certain elements. These interweave with the obvious influences of garage and grime seamlessly using double time rhythms and shuffling drum hits to create something that spans these genres with ease. What lurks under the surface of this release though is something more industrial, something more dark and yet not your average dubstep darkness. It doesn't sound like your standard brain-tearing, club smashing, filth-rinseout, 'brostep' music. Instead it's taken the dubstep sound back to its roots and then worked the filth from that level instead - rather than making an upfront, heavy as fuck and nasty tune. To get an idea of what I mean - think digital mystikz heavier stuff and you might be somewhere along the right lines. 
A part of me is compelled to suggest that Psonikadia has listened to lots of dark and heavy breakcore and gabber. I'm not suggesting that his music directly sounds like either of these genres - but his approach of intelligent and almost experimental sounds in the dubstep framework suggests to me that he wasn't exactly listening to beyonce before he made this EP. His production suggests influences from a much broader spectrum of music that all tend to think about their music in a deeper sense than just whether it will make people dance when it's played loud. Maybe I'm completely wrong about his influences - either way though, Psonikadia clearly puts a lot of love and thought into his music. You can get the 'Betacell' EP for free from the Xynthetic label now and I highly recommend you check out 'Banksters Paradise' and 'Cryogen' - both are great examples of this producers thoughtful style and demonstrate a really listenable yet detailed approach to music. The whole EP is of the highest quality and it is pretty amazing to find something of this standard being given away for free. Sometimes beautiful, often dark, but consistently listenable - there is no reason for you not to get this EP. -Words by Stephen Howe http://www.xynthetic.com/xsn045.php |
