тпсб provide Whities’ swansong with this three-track EP. The label will rename to AD 93 from their next release onwards, shedding an identity which had become cumbersome under the yoke of recently-transformed conversations and social attitudes. A kind of musical ecdysis, Whities 031 doesn’t disappoint—it’s as transitional and transformative for тпсб as it is for AD 93. Those familiar with тпсб’s Sekundenschlaf will have been anticipating Whities 031 eagerly. The happy surprise is that it spits in the face of these expectations to carve an entirely new path.
Sekundenschlaf felt like unattributed, authorless tracks recovered from an Eastern European tar pit. The album was dark, mysterious, sludgy and partially-decayed; the jungle equivalent of a snuff film. тпсб’s full-length Blackest Ever Black release was a microcosm of that label’s whole vibe.
Since Blackest Ever Black’s death, тпсб have burst from their cocoon with a far brighter collection of tracks. There’s still an endemic spookiness, but drums are crisp and luminous; treble-heavy and loaded with feather-light snares. The EP has a clean, spacious mix. It's the polar opposite to the “through-next-door’s-wall” muddiness of Sekundenschlaf. We’re hearing the same beast, using one of its other heads; as vigorous and inventive but with a rejigged vocabulary. It’s neat that тпсб’s two releases come from labels whose names contrast each other so absolutely, in what feels like a case of art imitating life.
Whities 031, in some sense, feels like a descendant of Orbital’s In Sides or Matthew Herbert’s Bodily Functions. Its sound is not only organic but interior. The EP has a peculiar wetness. In its delays, and echoes which pan from left to right, 031 sounds like blood flowing through ears. The cellular chatter that livens veins. It provokes a journey within oneself, inspecting the mechanical status of the human body; oscillating and oily.
‘If This Is I Don’t Know What Isn’t’ is the apex of this exploration, wisely situated slap-bang in the EP’s centre. The track breathes a soft fluidity into its own very angular and geometric landscape—it’s both the dock and the waves. Burial infamously sampled bullet casings and excerpts of the soundtrack of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 2 on Untrue. тпсб here suggest that game’s setting, the Big Shell, with a quasi-ambient industrial beat that’s sure to remind many listeners of happy hours spend slipping on bird shit and soaking up the pale PS2 sun.
The nostalgia doesn’t end there, though, courtesy of тпсб’s confrontational old-schoolism. This was present on their last release, too. But where Sekundenschlaf felt like an exercise in nostalgia—an almost sardonic resurrection of long-dead aesthetics—Whities 031 is a joyous remixing of the glory days of jungle and footwork.
Whities 031 is available for purchase and streaming here.
Words: Andrew O’Keefe