Opal, by Batu

Opal

by Batu

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£7.99 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
140g record, mastered by Beau Thomas.
Full color sleeve - art by Harry Butt

Includes unlimited streaming of Opal via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 100

Purchasable with gift card

£19.99 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Digipak CD version.
Contains an exclusive CD bonus track.

Mastered by Beau Thomas.
Artwork by Harry Butt

Includes unlimited streaming of Opal via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

£11.99 GBP or more
Sweater/Hoodie
Embroidered cuff, front and back screenprint.

350 g/m² ring spun India Ink Grey Hooded sweatshirt (85% Cotton / 15% Recycled Polyester)
Double layered hood in self fabric, set-in sleeve. Woven Necktag.

Embroidered and printed by LiveInk using GOTS & OKEO-TEX certified ink.

Design by Linus Nicholson

****
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ships out within 10 days

edition of 50

Purchasable with gift card

£60 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
140g record, mastered by Beau Thomas.
Full color sleeve - art by Harry Butt

Includes unlimited streaming of Opal via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 150 4 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

£21.99 GBP or more

1.	Former World 00:58	buy track
2.	Mineral Veins 02:51	buy track
3.	Convergence 04:23	buy track
4.	Even Here 03:28	buy track
5.	Atavism 04:13	buy track
6.	Emulsion Of Light 02:26	buy track
7.	Solace 02:44 video	buy track
8.	Squall 03:49	buy track
9.	Spectral Hearts 04:14	buy track
10.	Eolith 02:37	buy track
11.	Always There 04:19	buy track

about

Building on the promise of nearly 10 years testing limits within club music, Batu presents his debut album Opal. Experimentation is a well-established facet of Omar McCutcheon’s identity within the leftfield techno zeitgeist, but more than ever on Opal he seizes the opportunity to incorporate ideas beyond dancefloor impetus into his animated, forward-leaning sound.

Through the course of 11 tracks, rhythmic forms are mutated and manipulated, sonic matter bends across the frequency range and narrative structures coalesce and dissolve according to Batu’s own internal logic. Unpredictability lies at the heart of all this music, bound together by a consistent modernist glint. It’s a sound intrinsically connected to the superlative string of club 12”s, EPs and collaborations Batu has spun behind him thus far, even as it moves into unfamiliar terrain, guided by abstract inspiration from coastal landscapes and the mineral matter all life on Earth is built on.

On Opal the visceral production isn’t necessarily geared towards shock tactics. Instead, emotional depths are explored through melodic and textural forms which take on an elemental quality. It’s a space which can accommodate the explicit heart and soul of the human voice, as recent collaborator serpentwithfeet demonstrates weaving a mesmerising vocal through ‘Solace’, but it can also take in broad sweeps of interpretive landscape. There’s also room for small fragments of instrumentation, recorded by Memotone, processed by Batu and subtly threaded throughout the album. Balancing micro and macro in specific sounds as much as moods, Batu’s finely-sculpted work calls to mind the immensity of passing time cast in cliff faces, and the intimate personal growth we experience in our own lifetimes.

Mimicking the iridescent stone it takes its name from, Opal refracts Batu’s distinctive artistic imprint, giving us a deeper, more revealing impression of the artist as he explores ideas bigger – and indeed smaller.

credits

released April 29, 2022

Artwork - Butt Studio
Mastering - Beau Thomas @ Ten Eight Seven
Audio source material on all tracks - Memotone
Audio source material on 'Even Here' - Air Max '97
Vocals on 'Solace' - serpentwithfeet

license

about

Batu Bristol, UK

Producer, DJ and owner of the Timedance record label.

shows

Apr 19

Cabaret Sauvage

Paris, France
May 24

Public Records

New York (NYC), NY

contact / help

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