Boddika
Boddika

With electronic music becoming more polished and quantized, Boddika's arrival has shaken the scene to its very core, slamming down with a raw take on things that's making all journalists scramble for the right genre tag. Is it electro? Techno? Old? New? Harking the expansive sounds of Luke Vibert, the analogue programming of Juan Atkins early work, and the rawness of the Drexciya/Dopplereffekt family, Boddika is the newest project of Al Green, 1/2 of the boundary-pushing duo that's re-written the rules completely, Instra:mental.
The moniker is quite fittingly lifted from RoboCop (specifically the villain Clarence Boddiker), with a name that suits the music's dark and edgy, retro yet future feel. Boddika is tough and metallic, but nothing about it sounds of the digital landscape of contemporary electronic music. Gone are the hollow drums with no punch, or overly compressed productions with no dynamics - and in their place comes layers of full, analogue sounds that are as intense as they are immaculate. With almost Juke-fuelled vocal chants, innovative drum patterns that morph and develop with each bar, and deep, mechanic stabs, there's hardly any trace of the bass genres Green may be known for, but yet it doesn't quite fit comfortably in any defined 4/4 box either. In short: it sounds like absolutely nothing else.
After releasing Instra:mental's warm, atmospheric grace of Futurist on Naked Lunch, the Dublin imprint jumped at the chance to release the first round of Boddika fire. Boddika's House and Syn Chron set the scene straight in October of 2009. The following month, first surfacing through Oneman's show on Rinse FM and select DJ mixes (a guest mix on Benji B's Radio 1 show), his tearing beat constructions started reaping havoc. As DJs across the board began dropping his tracks, leagues of hungry listeners began demanding to know who Boddika was.
Now with releases lined up on Swamp81, Nonplus+ & Naked Lunch, and even a remix for Photek, it seems the Boddika takeover is only just beginning.