The Predatory Wasp
A Warm Static Sphere sees TPW favourite 36 in ultra-deep mode – vast and immersive synths mesh with opaque waves of noise which give way to more delicate moments and open up to reveal fragments and minutiae buried in the depths. The press notes describe the album as “truly horizontal music”, and while I’m not entirely sure what that means, it definitely makes me want to lie down. In a good way.
https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/a-warm-static-sphere
In the last few years, 36 has become one of my favourite artists, although I became a fan after he started his Statis Sounds… series with zakè, so don’t feel like I’ve been a part of that particular journey. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III is the final part of the trilogy, made up of two long pieces: “Final Approach” and “Blue New World.”
As with the first two volumes, it’s cinematic in scope and carefully paced, built around slow-moving drones, soft static, and layered synth work. “Final Approach” includes some striking use of low-end and piano, while “Blue New World” leans into heavier, darker textures, and there’s even a nod to doom and drone influences in places, though still within the ambient framework. It’s an immersive final chapter to the series.
https://3six.bandcamp.com/album/stasis-sounds-for-long-distance-space-travel-iii
Given the artist and title of this, I’m not sure I really need to explain why I love it.
“How are you expected to put your hands in the air when you can’t even rise from your knees?”
https://3six.bandcamp.com/album/trance-anthems-for-a-sunken-generation
My dude 36 is back with yet another album, hopefully the first of many this year. Reality Engine is the third and final LP in 36’s synth trilogy, concluding the melodic, melancholy machine sound started with Wave Variations and continuing with Symmetry Systems. See how it glimmers! Feel better!
Dennis Huddleston’s music has always been based around loops, and his latest album as 36, Ablyss, is the fullest expression yet of this obsession. The 21 tracks that make up the LP are not unfinished ideas, waiting to be fleshed out into fully formed tracks: they exist purely in their own terms, tools for drifting off and becoming completely detached. Or as he puts it: “Feel free to get lost in them whenever you need them.”
“Cold Ecstasy is the ultimate memory rush. It’s the album I’ve always wanted to make“
Cold Ecstasy is the latest album from 36 – the ambient and experimental electronic music project of UK artist Dennis Huddleston. An homage to the happier, more emotionally-charged aspects of the UK hardcore and rave scene, it is a truly beautiful body of work, playing with themes of memory and deeply rooted in nostalgia: something with which I have an arguably unhealthily obsession.
I love Cold Ecstasy, so was delighted that Dennis agreed to answer some questions about his inspirations and approaches to its creation.
For the majority of the 00s and 2010s – and arguably even in its 90s heyday – trance and the happier aspects of hardcore were pretty much written off as unserious and not worthy of respect. Why do you think that is?
People are too serious, perhaps? Look, I get it. There were some absolutely dreadful happy hardcore tunes. Things got pretty stupid after 1997. But UK hardcore has always had this duality, right from the get-go. For every classic tune like Ellis Dee’s “Free The Feeling” we also got gimmicky trash like “Sesame’s Treet”. Happy hardcore just took things to the extreme, since the bad stuff was really, really bad. It was an easy target, I found it hilarious how Sharkey was a key part of hardcore’s downfall with much-maligned tunes like “Toytown”, yet he was also instrumental in pushing the Freeform sound years later, which gave us so many great tracks. As I say, such is the duality of man!
Of course, it’s a phenomenon which isn’t exclusive to hardcore. Every genre has good and bad tunes. It encourages you to dig deeper to find the stuff that shines brightest. Believe me, there’s plenty of classic happy hardcore tracks, if you give it a chance. I wouldn’t have listened if they weren’t there.
Dennis Huddleston aka 36’s new album Cold Ecstasy is a pitch-perfect homage to 90s rave, focussing on “the happier side of the hardcore spectrum, which I feel was unfairly maligned at the time.”As a teenager obsessed with happy hardcore and later trance, I’ve always had a massive soft spot for the unashamed positivity of those genres. A companion piece to 2021’s Weaponised Serenity which was equally brilliant, this new LP is further proof that Huddlestone is one of the most consistently excellent electronic producers out there.
Fantazia came out on the brilliantly-named album Weaponised Serenity around six months ago, but aside from this piece from A Strangely Isolated Place I can’t find any coverage for it at all. Recorded by Dennis Huddleston under his 36 alias for the 9128.live label – which asks artists to push their creative boundaries by presenting new and experimental approaches to music creation – Weaponised Serenity is a joyous journey through Huddleston’s rave heritage, exploring both the deeply meditative qualities and drug-fulled hedonism of the rave, often within a single track.
The Predatory Wasp 