Uwdar – Broken Planet (Casette tape)

Uwdar (that is 1/2 of ETNOBOTANIKA duo) presents Broken Planet album. The cassette release marked in our catalog as SPRK004 is something absolutely unique. What strikes at first sight is the very look of the cassette. We decided to go a little bit crazy and for the first time we made a full print cassette, so printed in whole (not only in the standard printing area), and additionally we played a little with the transparent material from which the shell (box) of the cassette is made. On both sides of the cassette there are two different graphics in different colors, which thanks to the transparency effect overlap each other (how cool is that? 😃). That’s not all – the cassette comes with an insert with four double-sided panels filled with photos that represent the inspiration for this album. We’ve always liked cassettes that not only contain good music, but have a cool design in their own right, plus that something extra – rich artwork that allows you to sink into the world of a particular artist a little more. Of course, the old-school cassette design is not the only inspiration – the music also evokes the ghosts of the past, and here too it is something special for our catalog. Uwdar created an album, which in terms of sound refers to the golden age of electronic music, namely the 90s and the beginning of the 00s. “Broken” in the title refers to the broken rhythms, which resound on the tape – old school jungle, breakbeat, trip-hop. The well-known breaks (amen!) are accompanied by nostalgic, synth melodies for which we liked ETNOBOTANKA so much and, of course, samples. The latter come from very different sources – above all, on the album you will hear a lot of guitar interludes skilfully cut from old Polish punk tapes, but also echoes of voices from VHS (e.g. a classic dialogue with Serpico, Beavis and Butt-head!) or audio clips from computer games of the era (Tony Hawk Pro Skater ❤). If you remember the times of pirate CDs and cassettes sold somewhere clandestinely in the underground passages of Polish cities, where Prodigy and Westbam albums reigned, if you played for hours in the aforementioned Tony Hawk, Cool Boarders or Wipeout, then this cassette will give you a nice nostalgia trip! Of course it’s not just a recreation of what Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality did all those years ago, nor is it a simple adaptation of current break trends like Bicep and the same 5 samples from the Blu Mar Tena compilation 😉 Uwdar takes the original breaks and processes them in his own unique way so that they still have a dance and club potential, but the album as a whole, thanks to numerous skits, interludes and tempo changes among other things, is great to listen to from board to board. From all these elements something else emerges – a story about a “Broken Planet”. Is it a commentary on the times we live in or the condition of all of us as humanity? See for yourself!