Sd Laika
That’s Harakiri (TriAngle)
17/20
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sd Laika is Wiley’s deranged brother who’s been kept in the attic; now unleashed, unhinged and dangerous. It’s a bleak image, we know, but the deformed alien grime from Milwaukee producer Peter Runge paints a lurid picture indeed. Runge burst on to the scene in 2012 with the abrasive Unknown Vectors EP for Visionist’s Lost Codes imprint, and has returned after two years of silence with his schizophrenic statement That’s Harakiri.
Harakiri is the name for the ritual procedure of suicide by disembowelment reserved for Japanese samurai, also known as ‘Seppuku’ or ‘cutting the belly’. Sharp, mutating percussion barrels down the album’s whole, tearing it apart as it warps at will into chaotic chars of grime, UK funky and brasher noise experiments; taking pre-set formula and fully dismembering it.
Sd Laika’s popularity comes at a time of increased interest in grime producers, while his own re-emergence in this period seems to embody a renewed standard for the darkest, most twisted dwellings of the genre. Don’t be put off with what might seem like a loaded enterprise. Among Harakiri’s rabid parts come heavily-grooved, twisted melodies that are at times arresting and at others wistful and longing. At just over 30 minutesin length, That’s Harakiri’s brash testimonial is, much like the snarling toddler on the cover, gripping, garish and gracious in one.
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Words: Anna Tehabsim
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