apollo bitrate – despectral maid [2LP]

ANGEL EARTH BIO FOR DESPECTRAL MAID:

“Caybee Calabash (performing under the apollo bitrate project) is a Derby-based electronic artist dedicated to capturing high-saturation and adrenaline with each new release, a focus dripping from the sound to the visual aesthetics and back again. Her most recent release, “despectral maid”, is a collection of detonative post-chiptune-post-hardcore spheres of energy that, regardless of length, are anything but exhausting. Synthesized tones, chords and corruptions are welded onto unrelenting percussion and axe-wielded guitar jams. Even with all this intensity, DM’s genre-playfulness and optimistic, caffeinated qualities allow it the most core and simple descriptor of “fun”.”

MILES BOWE’S ACID TEST WRITE-UP (FRONT PAGE):

“Last January this column kicked off with the twinkling, ear-crushing debut by Bagel Fanclub, the duo of Caybee Calabash and River Everett. So it feels perfect to begin 2024 with a pair of spectacular solo projects from each of them. Despectral maid is a joyful rush of bitcrushed chiptunes, fizzy drum ’n’ bass, and surging noise from Calabash’s project apollo bitrate. After a few brain scrambling minutes, third track “Submarine Gun” hits a stride that never lets up, as despectral maid careens from one dizzying delight to the next, like carnival rides running way too fast and way too close to one another. It brings to mind a sparking, glitching take on Ghost Box greats like The Focus Group, Belbury Poly, or Plone, albeit one rewired for a generation raised on file-sharing and video game emulators.”

• Genre: Breakcore, Chiptune, Experimental
• Format: Purple and Orange 2LP
• Retrac Recordings import.