UK Astro by Bradley Steptoe

Cyberpunk Manifesto: "The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures and designer cults with their own languages, codes and lifestyles." - Gareth Branwyn - Mondo2000 WELL conference / 1991

During the years 2010 to 2013, Bradley Steptoe developed the blueprints for a unique genre of electronic music called ‘UK Astro’. He constructed a five track EP of prototypes, and distributed amongst friends.

Drenched in wow and flutter, at it's pulsating core the genre is characterised by a snarling tussle between the metronomic driven vacuum thud of a Metasonix D-1000, and the throbbing brutalistic chorus of the Grendel Drone Commander. Rounded out with delay and esoteric transformations, the robotic hypnosis of squarewave modulation recalls the gleeful techniques and experimentation of early innovators of rave, jungle, dubstep, acid house and the like.

Having admired the EP for several years, 0PR felt compelled to re-animate and widely distribute this lost artefact. Following the release of ‘Arc Lag’ 0PR and Bradley enlisted the help of lo-fi producer Dr. S to produce and structure an album from these abandoned recordings. With no means to synchronise the raw hardware elements, the sessions were crudely constructed collages. By reworking lengthy live takes and abandoned loops, Dr. S and Bradley Steptoe have crafted a cohesive body of work.

The unstable wow and flutter saturated tracks on the album are, in essence, a reflection of Bradley’s deteriorating health, and subsequent exposure to life in London at that time - frantic, unnerving and broken. In ‘An Individual Note of Music Sound and Electronics (1972)’, composer Daphne Oram makes an analogy between the techniques of echo, and human memory/mental health. Oram speculates that trivialities are represented by quick fading echo that vanish into silence, whereas an echo that becomes gradually louder and consequently more distorted with each repetition, embodies the traumatic recurrent memory.

UK Astro is perhaps a retort to the homogenising impact, and isolating melancholia of global streaming corporations. It evokes a poignant autonomy, a glimpse into a vanished lost offline analog future. In a digitally simulated culture as algorithmically preordained as it is atemporal, UK Astro transports us to a hypothetical basement music scene that never was…

Equipment:
Metasonix D1000,
Rare Waves Grendel Drone Commander,
Star Instruments Synare3,
Yamaha CS15,
Snazzy Fx Wow & Flutter,
Moog Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring Modulator

For bookings contact: bradleysteptoe@gmail.com

For bookings contact bradleysteptoe@gmail.com