SHXCXCHCXSH – Kongestion (Album – Avian)
Genre/Influences: Techno, Minimal-Electro, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: SwedishSHXCXCHCXSH is back on track and joined hands again with avian to unleash their new album.
Content: “Kongestion” covers a wide range of electronic grounds. That’s maybe why this duo is sometimes defined as ‘Abstract-Techno’, but they move from Minimal-Electronics accentuated by heavy sound blasts to a mix of Techno and Power-Noise to ‘softer’, dreamy passages.
+ + + : “Kongestion” is maybe one of the band’s most accessible projects. I especially enjoyed the minimalism of the work achieved with noticeable sound treatments. The opening cut “Kong” is a great cut, but I mainly recommend the final one “Tion”. It all sounds simple, but the power is emerging from the sound treatments. I also recommend listening to the colder and wafting “Stio”.
– – – : It’s not an easy thing to catch the work of this project; it all sounds a bit anarchistic so you need a few listens to get into it.
Conclusion: SHXCXCHCXSH remains a sonic enigma, but those Swedes clearly try to do things a different way.
Best songs: “Tion”, “Kong”, “Stio”.
Rate: 7½.
Listen to “Kongestion”:
Artist: www.facebook.com/shxcxchcxsh
Label: www.a-v-n.com / www.facebook.com/AvianUK
About SHXCXCHCXSH
SHXCXCHCXSH is a Swedish experimental techno duo made up of Hannes Stenström, who also records as SSTROM and previously played in Slagsmålsklubben, and Emmanuel Pascal Moreno. The pair worked anonymously for years before their identities were confirmed, and they run the labels Rösten and HEM.
The duo started in 2012 with the 12-inch “NMHNMHNMNMH” on HEM, followed the same year by the “RRRRGRRGRRR EP” and the “RJRJRFFRJRJ EP”. “STRGTHS” arrived in 2013 and was reworked as “STRGTHS RCNSTRCTNS”, after which “Linear S Decoded” and “VVVLLLLVVV” appeared in 2014 and “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” in 2016. “Rösten 1” and “Rösten 2” followed in 2017, “SHULULULU” and “OUFOUFOF” in 2018, the “Word EP” and “AÅÄ” in 2019, and “VOOO” in 2020.
Avian issued “Kongestion” in 2022 on vinyl LP and in digital form. The duo has since released “DO” on Rösten in 2024 and the “QQQO EP” in 2025.
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