“The music is as tough as its concept promises, but also shows a vulnerable side.”

Resident Advisor

 

“A gloomy showcase of dark, arresting techno sounds.”

CRACK Magazine

 

Phantom Limb launch new dance / electronic imprint Visitant with a split 12” release of two of experimental techno’s brightest new lights: Demian Licht and Enyang Ha.

 

Visitant - a new series of split 12”s - acts as a meeting point between electronic producers from across the globe, specially invited to collaborate on one side each of vinyl. Its inaugural release is the tense, powerful marriage of South Korea’s Enyang Ha and Mexico’s Demian Licht, two female producers crafting thrilling, boundary-pushing experimental dance music that calls equally to the head, heart and body.

 

Demian Licht - a daughter of Mexico City’s vibrant, heady dance scene - emerged in 2016 as an electrifying new voice in techno with her self-released debut Female Criminals vol. 1. A dark, fiercely intellectual, floor-orientated call to feminist arms, the album coincided with Demian’s qualification as an Ableton Certified Trainer, making her the first (and as yet only) woman in Latin America to hold such a certification. Her stark abilities as a producer - those skills that attracted Ableton - are evident throughout her Visitant side. Opening cut “Ankaa” weaves broken vocal samples through a skittering beat and quasi-industrial, abandoned-factory reverbs. It ebbs and flutters by, grabbing at the senses until the 4m30s mark, when it true dark heart is revealed, bursting into a deep 4/4 charge. It is foiled perfectly by “Heyanajo”, a more subtle and deceptively creeping exploration of the same vocal samples, now reduced to a melting-machine babble. 

 

Demian Licht has also collaborated with Phantom Limb-favourite Eomac (one half of R&S Records’ Lakker) on a crucial 12” released by Eomac on his Eotrax label.

 

On the flip (there is no “b-side” here!), South Korea’s Enyang Ha responds raptuously to Demian. “Plastic Run” begins with moody drones and static shocks, gradually unfolding into Blade Runner futurism with disorientating, sci-fi collisions of sound design and a ripping pulse. Its percussive relentlessness acts as a foundation to a swirling, tripped-out techno destined to deeply destabilise floors. Closer “Reverse Birth” levels the dancefloor back out. Banging on Berghain’s doors with an urgent, throbbing bassline and syncopated stabs, a closer listen to its sound design reveals a meticulous science. A healing power amidst all the damage of its rhythm.

Enyang Ha was most recently heard as a contributor to Tunisian experimental techno heroine Deena Abdelwahed’s remix collection, alongside luminaries Karen Gwyer and MESH. In the Korean language, enyang translates to something like silver pearl – and just as shimmering are the sounds that ensue when Enyang Ha wires her modular synths. She is classically trained in violin and piano, and is now a resident of Berlin. A highly accomplished mastering engineer, she has worked on records by the likes of Amnesia Scanner and Eartheater.