Name: Astro-Darien
Brand: Kode9

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

FLAT002

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "FLAT002"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

Green

Colour details

Dark Green

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "Dark Green"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Housed in Triple Gatefold Sleeve.

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "Housed in Triple Gatefold Sleeve."}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-11-11

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5056321637901

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "5056321637901"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Total Cap

1 / 10" / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / green

Artist

Kode9

Genre GB

Bass / Breaks

Label GB

Flatlines

Kode9, born in Glasgow, Scotland, is a renowned artist and DJ. With a passion for music from an early age, he began his DJing career at 16, blending various genres such as reggae, breaks, hip hop, jazz, funk and house. As the breakbeat hardcore, jungle and drum’n’bass scenes emerged in the 90s, Kode9 embraced these styles and has been captivating audiences with his infectious beats ever since.

Having performed across the UK during the 90s and making his way to London in 1997, Kode9 became deeply influenced by the darker strains of the emerging 2step garage scene. Today, he not only continues to mesmerize crowds with his energetic sets but also runs *Hyperdub*, a highly regarded record label.

If you enjoy artists like Ikonika, Pinch or Zomby among others from this genre-defying musical landscape that blends elements of dubstep with experimental sounds and bass-heavy rhythms then you are sure to appreciate Kode9's unique style.

Astro-Darien is a 26-minute sonic fiction about the break-up of Britain, narrated by synthetic Scottish voices and framed as an eponymous video game. It is the second release on Hyperdub sub-label Flatlines; a dark green 10” in triple gatefold sleeve, with artwork by Kode9’s long-time collaborators Lawrence Lek and Optigram, presented as a limited edition of 500 copies. From a Caledonian heart of darkness to a supernova Scotia? The documentary fiction spirals between the role of the catastrophic Darien Scheme in the late 17th century in the founding of the UK, when Scotland failed to colonise part of present-day Panama, and the contemporary disintegration of the Union. In a somewhat wild extrapolation of the race to become the Scotland’s first vertical satellite launch station currently playing out between Sutherland Space Port and the Shetland Space Centre, independence is speculatively framed as an exercise of escapology, a jailbreak and exodus to an orbital space habitat, with all the risks and dangers that entails.

The loose plot follows a game designer from the fictional ‘Trancestar North' company who, in attempting to lift the dark spell cast by Darien, models a counter-future by ingesting cosmism, the history of racial capitalism and the demise of Empire into T-Divine, the geopolitics simulator of the game engine. She follows the Brexit algorithm as it runs to its logical conclusion.Initially conceived as an audio essay for diffusion on François Bayle’s 50-speaker Acousmonium for INA-GRM in Paris in March 2020, but subsequently postponed by the pandemic, ‘Astro-Darien’ first surfaced as a three-screen A/V installation on the dance floor of Corsica Studios in June 2021, finally reaching the Acousmonium the following October. In July 2022, an instrumental rhythmic version entitled ‘Escapology’ was released on Hyperdub. A live A/V set relating to the ‘Astro-Darien’ game universe will debut at Unsound Festival in October 2022.

Astro-Darien

Music GB