Gathering the tracks from the “Fraktals” and “Simetría” EPs as well as two exclusive new tracks and a remix of a Niveau Zero original, “Adhesion” is the crowning release of Balkansky and Loop Stepwalker’s collaboration. A tour de force in precision, strength and toughness, this full length album unfolds its massive low end, efficient beats and larger-than-life basslines with insolent talent, catchiness and bold weight. A new essential albums demonstrating the strength of well written, imaginative and original hard dubstep.
The full length album “Adhesion” is the crowning and closing volume of the first chapther in the collaboration between Balkansky and Loop Stepwalker. Featuring all the tracks from the previously released “Fraktals” and “Simetría” EP, plus three tunes exclusive to this release, it gathers the music written by these two very distinct musician in a rich, detailled and compact whole.
Though they share the exact same birthday, Balkansky and Loop Stepwalker escape the clichés of so many press release, in the sense that they were not really made to meet and work together. On the one side, Ivan Shopov is probably the best known Bulgarian musician of the moment, very prolific under both the Balkansky and Cooh monikers, and has been producing tracks after tracks for the best part of the 2000’s, releasing on a multitude of labels and playing all over the world. On the other side, Jordi Calvin (Loop Stepwalker) was until this year unknown to the electronic scene, more active with his local Mallorca’s metal one.
It’s therefore by chance that the two met (to be more precise, when Cooh played in Mallorca), clicked and started writing the material which would end up being “Adhesion”. If their own personal history were far apart, this album’s title is particularly fitting. Glueing together elements from each and coming up with something which is more than the sum of their solo outputs, this album brings more elements together than one might believe at first, and is a very varied trip, powerful and efficient all throughout.
Do Balkansky’s catchy but gritty melodies soften Loop Stepwalker’s massive, warlike beats? Does the latter’s deep low-end slow down the former’s upbeat rhythms? And how did they come with the club-packing basslines of such a track as “Kora” or “Sopharma”, while infusing a high level of soulfulness in their album with “Spot The Light”, “Cicatriz” or “The End Of The Journey”.
“Adhesion” is something special in several ways. First because it unites such disparate influences and pasts. But also (and foremost) because while being as heavy and challenging as fans expected, it also stands out for carrying an acute sense of harmony, detail and humanity. In other words, something which fits right with the Ad Noiseam motto of presenting music that both in the club and in the head.