An introduction to contemporary electronic artists working within the UK and around the frameworks/aesthetics of deconstructed club (Ship Sket), glitch (Two Shell), hyperpop (BABii), UK bass (Mun Sing), and industrial-wave (Rat Section).
‘deconstructed club’ (sometimes referred to as ‘post-club’) emerged in the early 2010s and is often traced back to the New York-based GHE20G0TH1K club nights. An early major platform, these nights brought together artists and DJs from diverse musical backgrounds, foregrounding experimental, hybrid, and post-digital approaches to club music. Deconstructed club is not a rejection of club aesthetics but a subversion of them, working with the core logic of club music (intensity, structure, rhythm, and repetition) and refashioning these elements to create something innovative and transgressive.
Strongly connected to LGBTQ+ communities and queer club culture, deconstructed club developed with an emphasis on identity and experimentation and a resistance to homogeneous or normative procedures. Since its emergence, these ideas have expanded beyond a specific scene or group of artists and now function as an inspiring ethos, one that prioritises process, hybridity, and shared production methods over stylistic consistency.
The artists collected here reflect this ethos. While their sounds differ, they share an approach shaped by an informal online pedagogy, post-digital production techniques, and an artistic milieu that values eclectic influence and experimentation. In this sense, this playlist and artists included sit closely alongside those in my Abstract Electronic UK series. My method of compilation is also similar, tracing a loose but connected network of current artists and their corresponding influences from different movements rather than a typical genre-based playlist.
My introduction to this ethos mirrors many others: a deep interest in computer music and the sound design of Arca, as well as spending hours scouring forums such as MOD WIGGLER, the depths of Youtube, and subreddits such as r/organicsignals. Discovering projects like XYZ (Iglooghost, Kai Whiston, BABii) in 2020 and Lux Cache in 2021 introduced me to a wider network of producers and a shared approach to sound, where process, texture, and digital experimentation are at the forefront. This appealed to what at the time felt like conflicting musical influences/interests.
