Drum'n'gaze duo 100% WET release their eponymous debut album on Crunchy Frog. Who are they? Rebooting the harddrive of indie rock programming, 100% WET is an experimental duo consisting of the two producers and guitarists Jakob Birch (The Lost Weekend, Lovespeed) and Casper Munns (Himmelrum, Drop, Splitscreen), featuring different vocalists including Eir (SE), Polly (DK) and Hockeysmith (UK).
Blurring the boundaries between rock, electronica, and breakbeat-driven club music, the album is a genre-blend of shoegaze's vast soundscapes, the kinetic energy of drum'n'bass and the hard-hitting detail of hyperpop. "When we met, we both needed to approach music-making from a fresh perspective. We'd been exploring electronic production styles, and this album became our mutual attempt to create drum'n'gaze - a term Casper had coined to describe the missing fusion of shoegaze and drum and bass." say Casper and Jakob.
The album is an exploration of contrasts - melancholy wrapped in euphoria, introspection communicated as explosion. Sonically, the band has worked with negative space in a loud-quiet-loud sense, mirrored thematically and emotionally: The album deals with stark contrasts. On hypergaze single Ether they describe the juxtaposed feelings of being in an altered state of mind - the perception of momentary bliss, while also experiencing everything at a dissociate remove. It is bitter-sweetness experienced in high contrast; golden euphoria tinged with an absolute monochromatic melancholy.
Elsewhere, on Over Me, the duo mix a deep longing for life itself with utter heartbreak, both outerpoints sounding like they're soaring above the clouds, anchored by a roar of a chorus and deep subs. Whether on ballads or bangers, so to speak, the album is cohesive but utterly fresh-sounding.
STAFF COMMENTS
Liam says: Mega, mega, MEGA!! Spaced out shoegaze meets DnB. Sounds like it shouldn't work but it totally does. Channelling the bagginess of Chapterhouse's 'Pearl' but with a more polished sheen at points, then elsewhere there's moments of utter shoegaze pop perfection - massively impressed!
TRACK LISTING
1.Lost Myself
2.Ether
3.Looking In From The Outside
4.Re-Emerging
5.Over Me
6.Two Packs Of Red Apples
7.Leave It
8.Carat
9.Warmblooded
