Among the Best Cassettes in 2014, the U.S. Hard EP was an “inventive and innovative” sound piece “reminiscent of the classic hardware tracks popular in industrial-tinged venues around the world.” The EP strengthened our awareness of the Pacific Northwest electronic community and scorched Blankstairs into our radar.
Much like the EP showed a proficiency in tension and an industrious mentality, Santiago Leyba of U.S. Hard systematically constructs the “Voidworx Mix” like an assembly line of experimental contemporaries to be disassembled and reassembled into his vision. Spanning global contemporaries, “Voidworx Mix” is a mechanized assault of experimental, industrial, and avant-garde techno. It feels like urban revolution, decay, and renewal all the same and Leyba is the conscientious machinist, deconstructing the underground vanguard which has existed to build and destroy the concrete house.
U.S. Hard’s EP is out now on cassette via Blankstairs.
