Kraysh 'Shrapnel' Gud Vibrations

Shrapnel by Kraysh on MP3, WAV, FLAC, AIFF & ALAC at Juno Download — *The elusive bass figure returns to NGHTMRE and SLANDER’s imprint with his third single.*

Kraysh is making his triumphant return to Gud Vibrations with “Shrapnel,” his third solo offering for the label.

Stream “Shrapnel” here

Since emerging from the shadows a few years back, the young blood from Canada has been shaking up the bass scene with a smattering of cuts that are forged with a blatant disregard for the status quo. Innovative would be a better way of putting it, as the elusive artist continues to craft distortion-laden releases with a sound that he can claim entirely as his own. He’s been known to dwell between the dividing line separating the worlds of light and dark, using the contrast to cleverly tickle the brain as much as it does the body. On his next issue for NGHTMRE and SLANDER’s Gud Vibrations imprint, Kraysh is tapping into an undisclosed source of fury that finds him to turning rage into an aural explosion.

“One day, I was very angry, for personal reasons,” says Kraysh. “The following day, I wrote this.”

Instead of unleashing his wrath upon sight, “Shrapnel” opens up with a heavy measure of melancholy elicited by somber strings that distend with cinematic grace. Thunderous percussive triplets start to bubble beneath the surface, added in like pent-up aggression that ticks like a time bomb. Within a moment’s notice, the melodies disintegrate and Kraysh heads down a path of unstoppable destruction. At this point, the fuse is lit and there’s no going back. He layers in highly combustible drum programming, which fuels the flames caused by a cacophonous cocktail of metallic synth grinds, crackly textures, fuzzy bottom-end, and flying shards of ingenious sound design. Anger has never sounded this good.

Kraysh last appeared on the label at the start of 2020, when he cracked domes with his psychosomatic single “Thoughts.” It arrived a few months after his Gud Vibrations debut, “GA FFA,” an equally discombobulating chunk of dubstep. Tastemakers from all around the circuit have also taken notice, with support for his releases piling up from Porter Robinson, Mat Zo, Alison Wonderland, Ghastly, Boombox Cartel, PEEKABOO and more. And yet his ambitiousness is not just confined to the studio, either. Being dynamic behind the decks is another bragging right he holds, as evidenced by his highly agile Medusa Set livestream performance during the stacked Virtual Vibes 2020 festival alongside WAVEDASH and SVDDEN DEATH, as well as label-bosses SLANDER and NGHTMRE. Whether he’s getting weird on the mix or strange in the studio, it’s clear that Kraysh is always going to catch you by surprise.