Things are fucking rotten, and Grove's latest collection of three tracks is not holding back on what a hot, ragged mess everything is. It's kinetic, clawing, ready-for-battle club music that at one point samples Irish PM Thomas Gould advocating for Benjamin Netanyahu to burn in hell and then also shouts out Luigi Mangione as a vigilante.
"Stark reminder that the root cause — I mean it's just rotten. It's rot all the way to the core," the Bristol-based producer declares on "Babylon Rotten." Everything is poisoned. We need to start fresh, need to rebuild. With the three new tracks "Babylon Rotten," "The Crucible," and "Break A Sweat," Grove provides a soundtrack of propulsive electro-punk and trippy dub that calls out that corrosive systemic powers.
In a press release, Grove shared a statement about the release:
After two years of personal distress, reflection, and rebirth, these two weighty, 70bpm punk-infused industrial tracks are born of potent hope. "Break A Sweat" is the warrior’s journey against apathy — a confrontation with the Western world’s ongoing colonial violence in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo. "Babylon Rotten" is the rallying cry: a call to reclaim inner and collective power against the many-headed beast of government corruption that defines this dark era.
This corruption reflects a deeper sickness of humanity — where lies spread like wildfire, life is cheapened, and division and censorship thrive in poisoned yet fertile soil. The important caveat is that Hercules didn’t defeat the Hydra alone; he worked with Iolaus, who cauterised each wound to stop new heads from growing.
Since my last release, I’ve been on my own journey of strength — physically, through strength training and recovery from knee surgery, and spiritually, through deeper self-connection and activism. Now I feel rooted, rebellious, and ready to connect and agitate, and I sense that same readiness in the collective.
Over this time I’ve also honed my production craft, collaborating with key figures from Bristol’s experimental jam scene - Michael Gianan on guitar ("Babylon Rotten), EJ:AKIN on vocals, and James Storm on saxophone ("Break A Sweat").
These two tracks are galvanising sonic odysseys that open the next chapter. It’s time for us to tap into the Herculean - to get uncomfortable, to get moving, and to start swinging.
Listen to Hydra below.
