"Arriving as the third album on Supreems ‘Sweet Sun’ label – an imprint gathering a reputation for future-facing, storytelling electronic music – Sloucho's 'NPC' explores the duality of his main character and non-playable lives. Spending a long time isolated, Sloucho became lost in his own world, his mind turning passersby into NPC’s in a skewed video-game nightmare. Breaking through the isolation came with the realisation that he too was an NPC in so many people's lives, and the recognition that both states of existence can be simultaneously true.
Featuring a strong Irish artistic presence across the albums collaborations, Sloucho navigates through Cloudcore-inspired broken beats, bass-driven percussion, alternative dreamscapes and wubby fuck-steps on his most complete release to date, laying the foundation for an origin-story in the process.
Garnering support from Surusinghe, Roza Terenzi, Two Shell and more; some of the tracks on NPC have already been heard in clubs around the world - from Antwerp to London and Mumbai to Paris. But here on NPC we are offered an insight into Sloucho's world.
'Mind Traveller' offers an introduction to ‘Athrú’, Sloucho’s home world, as the artist's pitched vocals act as the listeners guide into the island's core. We explore Athrú until our encounter with 'Super Maramu 2000' a cut of alien-club beamed directly from ‘Eile’, the afterlife of Sloucho’s Neolithic ancestors. A waltzer-ride through Latin-bass and techno with an oxymoronic blend of maximalist and minimalist futurism, it’s as silly as it is serious, bringing the album’s rapid first half (and a bit) to a close.
Wandering through Eile, the second half of the album sees Sloucho seamlessly weaving from front left of the club to dark, fume-filled rooms exploring a previously unseen side to his sound, meandering through alternative trap and hip-hop laden beats that are both dreamy and nightmarish, bringing NPC to its starry-skied climax."
released May 3, 2024
Written + Produced by Sloucho
Mixed + Mastered by Michele Mucci
Photography by Jack O'Flynn
Design by OUCH!!
Distributed by Inch By Inch
Manufactured by R.A.N.D.
Words by Andrew Moore
Sweet Sun ™
sweetsun.bandcamp.com