Cult far east club assassin Tzusing galvanises cyber-industrial and EBM with cinematic sound design in a raving meditation on masculinity for PAN, following a decade of building the fiercest reputation via productions on L.I.E.S. and powerful DJ sets.

‘绿帽 Green Hat’ is the 2nd album of strapping club music and computer game-like SFX by Malay born, Taiwan-based artist Tzusing. The dozen tracks feature scything, pulsating rhythms and gnashing electronics influenced as much by Tzusing’s heritage as ‘90s cyber-dance musicks, South African gqom, fetish club soundtracks and the locked-in thrill of RPGs or Manga animation, culminating a rollicking ride primed for people who dress unironically like they starred in The Matrix. It’s an intensely concentrated set, stirring a bucket of cultural motifs and signposts into a mix of seething club cuts spliced with interludes and narrative devices that ratchet the feel of being the protagonist in your own sci-fi saga. A Chinese text-to-speech vocaloid triggers heads-down industrial trample of ‘趁人之危 (Take Advantage)’ and establishes parameters for the rest of the session, pivoting from the tumble of ballroom “ha’s” and knife-dance percussion in ‘偶像包袱 (Idol Baggage)’ to the tendon-thrumming torque of ‘孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless), and marshalling a major highlight in the tense EBM-techno drama of ‘Balkanize’. He specialises in slow heaving pressure on the sweltering madness of ‘Clout Tunnel’, and likewise hits the gas like Kaneda in an escape sequence on the rapid escalations of ‘Exascale’, with ‘Gait’ sounding like Kenji Kawai doing a club scene, and ‘Residual Stress’ revs up to the finish line with breathless velocity.