Buzz Kull
Deep Hate
Heartworm Press
A return to this native Australia after a sojourn in Germany hasn’t blunted Marc Dwyer’s instincts. 2022’s Fascination represented a North American breakthrough for the veteran producer, with tracks like “Rise From Your Grave” tapping into the omni-present electro-darkwave ethos with sharp elan while retaining the slightly offbeat homages to classic rave styles which have defined Dwyer’s work, even in its most ostensibly dark moments like 2019’s “Last In The Club”. The Deep Hate EP keeps that hot hand going with a sharp set of originals as well as a clutch of remixes showing how Buzz Kull and his peers are balancing personal styles with broader club trends.
The morose and foreboding “Black Gate” is a clean reintroduction to Buzz Kull’s read on body music, with harmonically focused programming augmenting a staccato beat and chrome-tinted bass. Similarly, the sprained stabs of “Just A Memory”, replete with Dwyer’s sneering, disaffected monotone, are a perfect distillation of Buzz Kull’s combo of energy, cool, and colour. There’s more funk and left-field sound design to be found in both “In The Cut” and “Human Force”.
Perhaps even more than the originals, Deep Hate‘s mixes say something about how pliable and of the moment Buzz Kull’s sound is. Kontravoid zeroes in on the pulse of “In The Cut” and amplifies its bounce with his signature electro breaks sound, while the latent connections between “Human Force”‘s peppy clings and clangs and US phenoms Spike Hellis’ riotous funk are underlined in their mix of the track. Cold Cave, who of late have been popping onto the dancefloor during quick pauses in their nostalgic reverie, deliver an absolute stormer in their rework of “Just A Memory”, which has us hankering for more original material from Eisold & co. in this vein. And then there’s the welcome surprise of a PIG mix of “Black Gate” by Raymond Watts himself, who stretches “Black Gate” out into a twangy sprawl which eschews the club for the sake of cruising coastal highways at sunset.
Deep Hate ends up being a strong distillation of why Buzz Kull’s star continues to rise. Dwyer’s original tracks have plenty of club appeal on their own, and that each of the four contributing remixers found enough purchase in them to bend them in their own directions while keeping their core elements intact is no mean feat.
