1 Stanky - Intro 2 Stanky - Shin Splints 3 Stanky - Chazey Bons 4 Stanky - Pavement Etiket 5 Stanky - Flumf 2 6 Stanky - Gobbin 7 Stanky - Shortcrust Dub 8 Stanky - Fried LIMITED TO 50 COPIES WORLDWIDE. HAND-NUMBERED VINYL. The part French, part lazy, self-styled “sound generating organism” known as Stanky releases his debut on South London’s Shades Recordings on September 16th. His Midnight Snacks EP follows a successful collaboration with Owen Howells, Caffeine Persuasions, which won plaudits from Bristol’s Crack Magazine and Mixmag. A year in the making, the captivating 8-track EP is a love letter to improvised late-night recording sessions, frazzled electronics and found sounds from an accomplished talent hitting his stride. Stanky melds a dizzying array of influences together to create compositions with more structural similarities to dreams than conventional songs; half-remembered vocal snatches vye with dissonant percussive elements, motifs rise and fall, stuttering rhythms resolve into stomping assaults before quietly descending back into the depths. His mastery of tension and structure results in music, which bypasses the ego and makes a beeline straight for the subconscious. The journey begins with a cinematic, madlib-channelling intro, broken beats twisted into clattering hip hop by the long-forgotten tape machines of which he is so fond. Follower Shin Splints offers an ethereal fuzziness with textures spilling in and out of the track -gently wandering before climbing in intensity. Chazey Bons juxtaposes its predecessor with an ever-changing musical line which threatens to trip itself up before being subsumed by a slow swinging groove. The tempo increases with Pavement Etiket, which hurls itself into a frenzy, escalating the energy of the EP with an organic take on juke posturing, shot through with a bittersweet seam of longing. Personal highlight Flumf 2 sets an electrifying distant vocal against fast pulsating drum work, all anchored by an interloping bassline which doesn't get top billing until near the end, bringing serious release and propelling the listener to a new spiritual plane. After a meandering section in Gobbin we find ourselves at the darker Shortcrust Dub, where Stankey plays with the hardcore sounds that are synonymous with South London. The EP’s final track, Fried, provides the perfect counterpoint to the intro, completing the journey with a delicately engineered gateway back into the real world. Midnight Snacks marks the tenth release on Shades Recordings (formally Shades of Grey); an imprint set up by Duct , Fybe:one and Owen Howells, and dedicated to showcasing the best emerging talent in the UK scene.