Steve Bicknell has been immersed in techno for close to three decades now. Having launched the legendary LOST parties in 1991 with Sheree Rashit – which, if you don’t know, gave Jeff Mill’s his UK debut – as well as launching the influential Cosmic Records label a few short years later, he has been one of the most understated, vital figures in the UK’s underground, dark techno spheres since some of the scene’s biggest contemporary players were just kids. Though LOST may have finished up some years ago, that influence has gone nowhere.
His most recent EP on 6dimensions ‘Mind Patterns’ is arguably Bicknell’s most ferocious, relentless work. ‘Vein Injection’ is a distorted, brutal sonic assault while ‘Present Minds’ is a dark, euphoric trip that you could only hope to crawl your way out of, or just get lost in.
As natural as a process as those compositions may be, there is evidently a lot of personal and psychological projection in the music that Bicknell creates. Given that, and that Bicknell has previously shared interest mindfulness in the past, one can’t but wonder if he considers himself to be a philosophically inclined artist…
“I think someone who knows me would better answer that question,” he admits. “I would say I follow feeling over thought as much as possible.”
One such artist discovery for Bicknell to release on 6dimensions was Jing, the Taiwanese conceptual artist and producer whose vivid, experimental electronic sound designs soundtrack short stories with cinematic, cerebral mastery. Bicknell released her remarkable ‘Adularescence’ on 6dimensions in February this year.
