A sleeping memory turns around…
Originally formed in 2017, Cyberwaste is the musical brainchild of musician and producer Ashlinn Nash. Drawing from a wide range of influences, including Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Moby, Nash has cultivated a talent for immersive soundscapes that throw a nod to the likes of trip-hop and electronica.
Nash boasts a multi-disciplinary background which includes composer, producer, photographer, designer, visual artist and sound design artist. Cyberwaste represents another aspect of her creative output, one notable for hypnotic live performances, which also employ striking visual projection elements among the subtle rhythms and spacey beats.
Cyberwaste (the title is culled from Fear Factory’s song of the same name) is also part of the Syndicol stable of artists, which sees Nash in good company with the likes of Dicepeople, Moi Saint and Ventenner.
With the release of debut album Immerse, it’s an opportunity to also see Cyberwaste evolve with the addition of vocals for some tracks (courtesy of Jake Harding).
Immerse presents an ability to embrace a range of electronic music ideas, while also sticking to a loose cohesive vision overall. There’s elements of electronica on the instrumental compositions, such as the cosmic sweep of the album track; glitch on the likes of ‘Endless’ and reflective minimalism on ‘Lunar’.
‘Eclipse’ (which is also the album’s longest track) offers up a diverse combination of sounds that bounces between crunchy electronics and a more subtle, softer aspect. Meanwhile, Harding’s vocals have a beguiling quality to them that’s echoed in the often cryptic lyrics (“How long are you gonna wait for that broken sun”).
Odd vocal samples dot the twilight reverie of ‘Grime’. Similarly, ‘Sinking’ has a crepuscular quality to it with layered synth elements and a trip-hop sensibility in its percussion.
The instrumental track ‘Pretending’ serves as something of a lounge pop interlude. It’s layered with shuffling beats and brief vocal samples and offers a stylish breakpoint between the album’s two halves.
There’s glitch-inspired beats for ‘Endless’ which battle against crystal melodies, offering an intriguing contrast of sounds. Against the composition’s skittery percussion, Harding’s sonorous voice looms up as if from a treacle lake.
‘Lunar’ offers up a brief instrumental moment, one which embraces a more reflective mood in its chilled-out beats. A repeating percussive motif pulses away in a track that also knows how to utilise space, evoking images of desolate lunar landscapes.
There’s a more earthy, slow percussion on ‘December Water’ with Harding’s vocals given an hypnotic element as he gives life to enigmatic lines, such as “The dust and bones that stir below”.
The album closes out with the instrumental outing ‘Immersion’, which offers widescreen electronica peppered with bell-like tones.
Immerse is an album that seems to slot into an intriguing middle ground between trip-hop and the more esoteric end of electronica. The mesmerising results reveal a talent for both composition and production whose aural delights seem to get better with each subsequent play.
Immerse is out now on the Syndicol label.
Cyberwaste are performing live at the Emom@crypt event 31st August 2019. More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/379766269345030/
https://www.cyberwastemusic.com/
https://cyberwaste.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Cyberwastemusic
https://twitter.com/Cyberwaste01
