Christoph de Babalon: Grim Zenith EP
€17.00
Product information "Christoph de Babalon: Grim Zenith EP"
The brooding cycles of Christoph De Babalon's work have never readily leant themselves to the customs of genre and function. And the shadowy mechanics of his breakbeat turbulence altogether contradict the promise that rhythm's accents resolutely sustain. Rather than winding us in along its patterned coil, setting us down in a spiral motion with the bait-and-switch of a drop, his version of hardcore is pure fight-or-flight response. Its hardest edge is its sober presentation of distress in the familiar, the totalising anguish of perceiving a threat in everything you always welcomed. This is swing as recoil.
Christoph De Babalon's discography reads like a program for decoding the physiological darkside to the inhuman speed-test that hardcore first found the keys for. Set against the aching bellow of an orchestral, and almost floral, sensibility for windswept duration and exacting drone-tactics, there's no sleep for the raver and no mantle for the chin-stroker.
'Grim Zenith' cuts a sharp figure in Christoph De Babalon's oeuvre. With a menacing propulsion, there's a certain pace across his new EP that keeps the cryptic, rapid-fire detail in a fractal constellation of fallout. High definition despair arcs through high-tensile ambient passages, and swarming synthetic platforms gather around the agitated strings that close each side of the record.
Released in a numbered edition of 300 copies, this fifth record from V I S is a crucial dose from one of the most unrelenting practices to have been founded in the rarely shared vessel between experimental music and hardcore. That this nexus should elicit such a gothic poetics is singularly Christoph De Babalon's program.
Text: Patrick Quick
SECOND PRESSING. identical, but not numbered! Lower price!
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Christoph de Babalon's Diptychon about the unforgettable story of “Scylla & Charybdis” transcends past, present and future, myth and reality. On clear vinyl, printed innersleeve, cover design by Ian Liddle. This special edition includes the poster as well as the CD with CdB's Scylla & Charibdis Miniatures, previously only available directly from the label.We just received (June 2026) all remaining copies directly from the artist! Get your copy now if you don't have this already!
CHRISTOPH DE BABALON is known for tripping beats, dark wide spaces and eternal melancholy. He released his first record in 1994 on Hamburg's cult-label Fischkopf. Right after his debut he began working with ALEC EMPIRE's Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) where he, besides a couple of other records released his most important work: the legendary album 'If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It'. Also THOM YORKE of Radiohead is a big fan of Christoph de Babalon's music and invited him on a tour through southern europe in 2001. As co-founder of the music label Cross Fade Enter Tainment [CFET] he has been putting out records by influential electronic hardcore producers such as Somatic Responses, DJ Scud, Zbigniew Karkowski and Merzbow (to name but a few) since 1994. In order to learn more effective production techniques and gather new experience, he began working on music for theatre productions, dance performances and film. In June 2008 he hooked up with Radiohead again to play the "Daydream" Festival in Barcelona and introduce ,,Scylla & Charybdis" (released in 2008 on CFET) to the public for the first time. It was a sunny day - but the sky turned dark during Christoph's set. (Text adapted from Christophs Soundcloud profile.) A World Of My Own by Christoph de Babalon Golden Halo 5:24 Calls Of The Drowned 4:03 Overhead 3:14 Massacure 4:29 China Death 5:30 The Long Goodbye 3:18