Altmusic Presents: Rashad Becker NZ Tour

We are proud to present one of the leading artistic voices in contemporary electronic music, the master of mastering, Rashad Becker.

With his recent releases, 'Traditional Music of a Notional Species vol. 1 & 2', Becker has established himself as a pivotal artistic voice within the current historical moment, carrying the history of electronic music forward into an uncertain present with total mastery. Becker approaches this work in relation to an imagined species, with a dexterity honed over years as engineer for the renowned Berlin mastering studio, Dubplates&Mastering.

Sculpting his sonic pallet for an audience on brink of being and non-being, existing as much in speculation or metaphor as in actual fact, Becker injects a sense molten movement into his compositions, before polishing them to a point where a shimmering impression of an alien alloy is instilled. The resulting music is deeply mysterious, sitting uncomfortably in relation to interpretive absolutes. Wavering between synthetic artifice and the productions of organic, if otherworldly, hands Becker’s music is an amalgamation of grotesque, polyphonic sweeps and swells which render notional the profound ecstasy, cathartic practices, and sublime frequencies of humanity’s far-flung traditional musics. Within these shimmering sonic forms, at times recalling bowed surfaces, Becker distills the obsessive timbre of synthesis into pulsing, microtonal drones and the filtered tapping of small handheld drums.

Close listening to this insectoid court-music lays bare the necessarily speculative foundations upon which all new art is founded: the base fact of looking forward, toward a future audience which is yet to exist.



“Becker’s deft manipulation of the oddball sounds he creates allows him to elevate what could have been hazy sketches into the realm of high art”
The Quietus

“Rashad Becker’s work is probably the closest thing we currently have to a disturbing glimpse through a rupture in the fabric of reality. Cherish it appropriately”
Brainwashed