Eleusis - 8 Ball (Sneaker Social Club)

 

Title: Eleusis 

Artist: 8 Ball

Label: Sneaker Social Club

Cat Number: SNKRLP008

Genre: Hardcore Ambient

1: Can’t Hold On

2: Equator

3: Explain

4: Kommence

5: Lifes Lost

6: Many Shapes

7: Only Time Will Tell

8: Planetz

9: The Moons

10: Tigers Eye

11: Trail

“Leicester producer and Out Of Joint record shop boss 8Ball makes his debut on Sneaker Social Club with the slick 11-tracker 'Eleusis'. His EPs and album on the Grade10 label, which he runs with mates, celebrate the afterparty and are rife in moody atmospherics and post-hardcore references. 'Eleusis' is a perfectly executed contribution to the continuum demonstrating a weightless take on Hardcore and Jungle.”

So sayeth the press accompanying this here collection. It’s funny that as a DJ I would never play releases like this. However, long before this pandemic became a thing, I regarded this level of sonic experimentation as home listening. One of the reasons I suppose might be that this sound is a distinctively British one and, while not wanting to sound musically patriotic and turn this text into anything Brexit, I do find the evolution of this substrata fascinating. As far as this album is concerned, it’s relatively beat less until the silence is abruptly, but intermittently shattered, on ‘Many Shapes’. Thus far the listener has been guided through ambient extremes of the type pioneered I suppose, by Burial, but here given more edge. A peak, of sorts, is reached with ‘Only Time Will Tell’, and then the descent is back into the darkness. This is music very much of these times, something which is all suppressed power and turbulence. It’s the sound of letting off steam in a vacuum.