There are artist names that allow you to draw direct conclusions about the artist’s sound. Low End Activist is such a name: in Larry Edgar Anderson’s musical project there is a lot of activism in the low ends, i.e. the low frequency ranges of his niche of electronic dance music. But the activism can also be understood politically.
Both are inextricably linked to his background. Anderson comes from the Blackbird Leys council estate in Oxford, England, which has as much to do with the city’s wealthy centre and elite university as his music has to do with smooth stadium tech house. In other words: Low End Activist is fully committed to the hardcore continuum, i.e. the various resonance chambers of British sound system culture: dubstep, bass music, frayed, non-linear techno, always with a potential twist towards the bad. And an ever-present rumble in the bass frequencies that makes the catastrophe, the uncertainty of precarious conditions, palpable.
Bass reports
This can be heard, for example, on his almost self-titled debut EP »Low End Activism« from 2019. Between the beats of tracks like »Street Level« and »Neighbourhood Nationalism«, Anderson generously leaves reverb space for ghostly vocal samples from Blackbird Leys’ history to unfold – including MCs from a long-ago sound system event, but also recordings of social unrest.
Related reviews
After a stopover in Bristol, the aesthetic destination of his music, Anderson has lived in Berlin since his mid-teens. With his label Sneaker Social Club – Anderson is also running BRUK and, of course, Low End Activism – he regularly organises parties at OHM, providing further fertile ground for the hardcore continuum in the German capital.
