Industrial Dub music by NC’s skintape

Siler City, NC’s skintape kicks off the µ OHM series with his first outing on Ohm Resistance, the MASTOID EP. µ OHM series releases are limited edition, hand-crafted packages made by the artists themselves. This particular set is a true one-of-a-kind collector’s item: Business card sized CDr, handprinted Hospital Sock, dyed black rubberband alongside printed info card and download code.

All sounds heard on this release were reconstructed exclusively using audio from skintape’s ear surgery and ear related hospital visits during the summer of 2020, using hardware samplers and various effects pedals, uniting both illbient sound layers with industrial hip-hop coloring.

Following the words of skintape, himself, the concept behind the record was quite simple: “I wanted to show that it’s possible to construct something entirely sampled from a specific source, even something like recordings taken from the hospital…” – the fact that all these layers of sounds that formed the basis of “MASTOID” were taken from the visits to doctor makes the record even more authentic. Artist stresses that: “You can hear doctor voices in the background on any of the tracks, including the Audiologists voice on TEST, the intro track”.

Among the influences, skintape sorts out are various industrialized hip-hop artists, dub and early industrial stuff. As well as the avid usage of MPC1000, exploring different sound-layers and creating “MASTOID” – a dub-by industrial album created on the basis of doctor’s visits – conversations, therapy and operation, at the end.

Combined with skintape’s very characteristic, inspired-by DJ Shadow approach it created the mysterious release with very specific vibes. “I knew I had an ear procedure scheduled that I’ve needed for years” – it was basically the moment, when “MASTOID” was conceptualized. He stresses that: “It’s actually the first release I’ve done not using a laptop for anything (besides sending files for mastering). My workspace to create the album was anywhere I could find to set my MPC to craft these for a few hours.”

skintape is a producer who is influenced by combining the sounds and techniques of early industrial, hip hop, and dub, while intersplicing field recordings and a wild palette of non-musical sounds. Beginning in 2017, he has utilized sample sources as diverse as ear surgery, Hellraiser II, circuit bent toys, old furniture, and scrap metal. His forays into sampled sound and tape manipulation left him seeking to create out of these unusual monotype sources, and has yielded the MASTOID EP on Ohm Resistance and one in collaboration with Portland’s Badrich, as Cenobites. In addition to being influenced by a steady diet of Scorn, Techno Animal, Coil, Meat Beat Manifesto, African Head Charge, Dr. Octagon, and Godflesh, skintape is a prodigious FX pedal designer and builder.

Information: ▶︎ MASTOID | skintape | Ohm Resistance (bandcamp.com)