Veröffentlicht
Nov 15, 2024Veröffentlicht
October 2024
- Arriving over a decade into her career, Madam X's debut EP is every bit as bassy and banging as you might expect.
- Christiana Vassilakis's career has been old-school in a way that is increasingly rare. At 15, she got a fake ID to sneak into a rave to see SHYBOI play. That rave—and her deep love of Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 dance music show—inspired her to save up money to buy a pair of Technics and learn how to mix before starting university in Manchester.
Around this time, at the peak of the "post-dubstep" explosion, Vassilakis quickly became immersed in the underground, cofounding BPM, a collective and party series that was pushing the various mutations of bass gaining traction at the time. She parlayed that into an NTS residency when she moved to London in 2014, quickly establishing herself as part of a new guard of DJs fusing techno with British sound system culture and experimental electronics.
Since then, there have been plenty of milestones. She adopted the moniker Madam X, toured the US with Bicep and followed Mac's steps, earning her own BBC Radio 1 Residency. But she didn't want to get caught in the echo chamber of chasing trends. "There's so much questionable music coming out because we're living in this age where people expect things instantaneously," she once told DJ Mag.
She's taken this slow and steady stride while A&Ring her label KAIZEN. Since launching in 2014, the imprint's consistent trickle of releases have become synonymous with superb bass-driven club music, whether that's weightless grime or post-dubstep revivalism. Vassilakis's debut release, Homecoming, celebrates ten years of KAIZEN, fusing the weight of sound system culture with the finest in contemporary techno.
The record was written as a celebration of UK club scene, but Vassilakis takes that vision global with a wide-spanning crew of producers who reimagine disco standards. "Copacabathens," made with Lithuanian techno producer DJ JM, references Barry Manilow's bittersweet tale of a beautiful bartender, Lola, and her duelling lovers, which ends with Lola alone, drinking "herself half-blind." Viewing the original's kitschy club tropicana through the lens of techno, the two producers use metallic synth trills to mimic and invert Manilow's congas and breezy trumpets. Vassilakis's track with baile funk aficionado Doctor Jeep takes the folky intro from another disco classic, Bonny M's "Rasputin," and flips it into the sort of percussive and experimental techno tune you'd find on labels like TraTraTrax or Fever AM.
These two tracks add a dash of cheekiness in the often self-serious world of contemporary club music. But elsewhere, things get a bit darker. "Watergate," made with one of Mexico's best DJs, Andy Martin, is the hardest dub techno track you'll hear all year. After a barrage of industrial strength four-four kicks, they slip into a syncopated half-time and fill the stereo with squiggly melodies and growing walls of distorted feedback. The final third of the track builds back to peak time velocity, making this into the sort of "complex banger" that we heard all summer long.
Vassilakis plays with listener expectations, drawing unexpected throughlines that stretch from the chintzy world of easy listening to the heaviest modern dubstep. The songs here are, in other words, both alien and familiar—the result of a life spent worshiping bass bins. The record sounds much like her own sets, which she described to RA in 2022 as being connected by "dark rooms, big fat speakers, sweaty bods and lots of wobble." In that sense, Homecoming does exactly what it says on the tin.
Tracklist01. Madam X & DJ JM - Copacabathens
02. Madam X & Cartridge - Hoodlum FC
03. Madam X & Andy Martin - Watergate
04. Madam X & Doctor Jeep - Rasssputin