Character Collapse

Those unfamiliar with the DJ behind this week’s Crack Mix may well already be acquainted with the output of his label – Character Collapse is the alias of Alex Hall, who runs the Manchester-based imprint Natural Sciences.

Having first emerged in 2015, Natural Sciences has fast become a reliable outpost for tightly produced club-ready tracks with an output spanning smokey lo-fi house, scuzzed-up hardcore and steely electro from the likes of DJ Seinfeld, Brenecki, Datawave, and Textasy.

The label isn’t afraid of exploring more experimental territory either. Its most recent release – XXXTINCTION, for example – is a jarring sonic collage by sex educator and multimedia artist Shawné Michaelin Holloway, created by recording multiple open browser tabs to evoke a sense of precariousness, of “almost not existing”.

Hall’s omnivorous musical taste is writ large in his Crack Mix, which he describes as “45 mins of wild party music paying tribute to the Texas Terrortech and Detroit sounds packed out with classics, new blood, Kayne mind control diatribes.” Get locked.

Character Collapse next plays at the Natural Sciences label night at The Soup Kitchen, 28 March