Emerging from London in 2020, Precious Metals as a label seeks to unearth artists that are visionaries on their own terms. Free from genre tropes and The label looks to represent an international roster of artists that reflects the urgency and immediacy of contemporary club culture. Showcasing debuts from emerging artists as well long form projects from more established artists.
Format: EP Digital
Release Date: 20.7.23
Sot Wa Sada meaning “Voice and Echo” in Egyptian is the debut EP from Almaazz, an Egyptian-Canadian vocalist, dancer and songwriter based in Vancouver. A fearless blend of traditional Araabic songwriting, avant-garde sound design, experimental soundscapes, and contemporary club rhythms. Her voice effortlessly traversing between hauntingly ethereal and powerfully resonant.
Like a diary, Sot Wa Sada carries a vivid recollections of memories, related to themes of romance, loss, grief, rebirth and self love. Almaazz first became enmeshed into the underground club scene after emigrating to Canada. Finding kindred spirits in local forward thinking collectives s.M.i.I.e and Nuzi. During this time she developed a connection with fellow Precious Metals signee and s.M.i.L.e cofounder x/o, the sole producer of Sot Wa Sada
x/o, is a Vietnamese-Canadian producer, vocalist and visual artist who’s work explores dualities, and transgressive codes of identity. With Sot Wa Sada they crafted otherworldly bass driven distortions, and bleeding edge club constructions. Their industrial percussion underpinning Almaazz’s timeless euphonious vocals.
Discovering her voice through the process of writing the
record, Almaazz states “As soon as I found my voice using my mother tongue, everything flowed organically. Discovering strength
through this shift in language, helped me create my own
style combining wordplay, rawness, experimentation,
playfulness and simplicity.”
“The Egyptian-Canadian aesthete utilises a natural gift for sound design throughout the EP, twisting club dynamics in different directions. Moving between the ethereal and the ultra-direct, Almaazz is able to assert her own creative wills on the songwriting.” CLASH
Format: EP Digital
Release Date: 7.4.23
Marking two years since the release of the original album, Surrender Remix is the eagerly anticipated remix album of Endgame’s 2021 debut album Surrender. Featuring some of the most exciting names in experimental electronic music: Nammy Wams, Ssaliva, Estoc, Miedo Total, x/o, and VIO_L3T.
The remixers take turns to deconstruct and rebuild the tracks in ways that pay homage to the originals yet take them to completely uncharted territory. Pulling apart their component parts to reconfigure and rebuild them in stylistically hybridized and unique ways.
Ssaliva (Year001/ Slag-werk), is an infamous Belgium producer known for his deeply moving blown out ambient explorations. Part of the first wave of deconstructed club music in the early 2010’s, Ssaliva has been pushing the boundaries of electronic music for over a decade, and recently produced five tracks on Yung Lean’s album Stardust. Ssalivas take on Endgame’s Lacerate strips the track of its menacing overtones and broken beats and leaves its bare sombre fragile core.
Estoc (Yegorka) is a highly prolific producer and DJ that is notorious for her no holds barred cub focused edits and productions, teaming up with Miedo Total, a London based artist and performer who’s work combines twisted club mutations with brutal metal vocals and instrumentation. Collaborating on their remix for No Heroes. They transform it back into the metallic hardcore song that it was initially referencing. With a mixture of midi and live instrumentation used to demonic effect.
x/o (Quantum Native, Precious Metals) is the moniker for the Vietnamese-Canadian producer, singer and visual artist. With their last release, their debut album Chaos Butterfly they pushed their sound to new extremes, with elements of club, trip hop and deconstructed RnB colliding. Reinterpreting Tunnels see’s them reform Endgame’s vocal into a new breaks infused anthem.
VIO_L3T (Coyote Records) is the Cardiff based Dj and producer that is known for their meld of murky 808s and blissful harmonics. Their take Tunnels accentuates the haunting vocal and adds a euphoric drum and bass infused breakdown to an otherwise melancholy and sombre track.
“Album of the week.” BLEEP.COM
Format: EP Digital
Release Date: 3.3.23
Broken Particles is the third EP from enigmatic Brazilian artist Agazero (formerly DJ LHC, 177th and Vó1d). A journey into a distinctive, fragmented chaos future, exploring the glitches and distortions in an imagined reality. A deeply emotional and tactile response to a digital dystopia, fusing shards of grime, garage, drill and baile-funk to form new hybrids.
Born in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Agazero is a multifaceted producer, DJ and vocalist. Currently living in Niterói, a neighbouring city to Rio, he has established himself as part of a new wave of electronic experimentation in the region. With affiliations to local collectives Tormenta, and ZONA EXP, he is part of an exciting movement that has moved beyond the confines of narrow genre categorisation. His work is also beginning to gain international recognition for his unique and esoteric productions with his work featured as part of the recent Total Freedom curated Mugler runway show in Paris.
The EP features collaborations with some of the most exciting emerging talent from the Brazilian club scene including; innovative rap producer Tuti, experimental baile- funk/ club producer Laza and cutting edge visual artist and experimental electronic artist Yvu.
Agazero’s previous EP’s have been released on Vancouver’s s.M.i.Le, and Brazilian grime label Leigo Records, with both releases exploring a fascination with scientific analogies. Broken Particles seees him develop and elaborate on these themes, symbolised by the change in name from Vó1d to Agazero the (written form in Portuguese of the acronym “H0”) meaning Higgs Boson,
“before the project was empty and now it is symbolised by the filling of this empty space by the particle of God (H0).”
Taking reference from early 2000’s electronica artists like Tim Hecker, SND and Aoki Tkamasa, Agazero finds meaning in dismantling the tropes of genre, and breaking apart the patterns as a mode of disrupting hegemonic protocols.
“Album of the week.” BLEEP.COM
Format: LP (Digital/ Vinyl)
Release Date: 21.10.22
Violence is the self-titled third album from Baltimore born/ New York based artist, multi-instrumentalist, and cult figure Olin Caprison.. Their compositions are known for vivisecting and seamlessly merging the idiosyncratic features of hip hop, metal, RnB, and electronica, creating a language all their own. Complex soundscapes and haunted vocals that result in feelings of emotional extremes, from dread and fear and loathing to elation and ecstasy.
A dense multilayered opus, the album takes us on a journey through religious ceremony, nightmarish visions, and the forgotten corners of a decaying cityscape, leading us to the celebratory catharsis of the club. Entirely written, produced and performed by Violence, the project is an ambitious and singular vision that takes their unique sound to transcendent new places.
Violence began in 2010, with their first release in 2012 as part of close affiliate Total Freedom’s project Blasting Voice, a genre defining statement from some of the icons of of the era. They followed this with C-ORE, a seminal collaborative project alongside Mykki Blanco and Yves Tumor in 2015. Violence’s first solo project A Ruse of Power came on the infamous label NON run by Chino Amobi, Nkisi, and Angel- Ho in 2016, and saw Violence cement their place at the forefront of experimentation and exploration in electronic music. Their critically acclaimed second album, Human Dust to Fertilize the Impotent Garden (PTP, 2016), further refined and advanced their gloriously hellish sound.
The album initiates with Small Body, a solemn hymn inspired by the procession of nurses encircling a congregation in black pentecostal tradition. Its freeform chanting and syncopated body percussion invoke the trancelike rhythms of call and response music. A hollowed chamber of reverence that pulls us deep into the vision of the album.
It’s followed by Reptile, a horrifying slab of industrial intensity that merges multiple narratives seen throughout history to interrogate a side of victimhood not usually explored. A baroque masterpiece of intricate instrumentation and celestial theatre, guitar melodies blast across a delicately woven tapestry, reflecting the manic, distorted, and unstable mindset of the central figure.
Carved in Stone is an ode to Baltimore, Violence’s hometown, a brooding rap song that ends in an electronic symphony. Using Violence’s signature cinematic orchestration to tell the story of a particular alleyway in Baltimore, a loveless place filled with the debris and detritus of ill fated hedonism, the fragments of escaped traumas like broken bottles glistening under street lamps.
I Write Letters to You Everyday and Burn Them in the Fires of My Pride is the celebratory finale. Its gloriously chaotic polyrhythms, inspired by callbacks and prehistoric song structures, mix with the affectations of club music in reference to Violence’s days DJing dark underground NYC parties, a celebration of their relationship and adjacency to the club world.
“Album of the week.” BLEEP.COM
Format: LP (Digital)
Release Date: 11.03.23
Yayoyanoh is the self-titled debut full-length album from the enigmatic London-based vocalist and producer.
An exhilarating epitome of idiosyncratic afro-beats and shimmering future-pop, a showcase of the vocalist at his most spirited and formidable. The record establishes him as a star of the underground that is ready for his time in the spotlight.
Sonically and thematically the album reflects his unique journey, and upbringing in Somalia, Canada, and London with lyrics that divulge heartbreaks of the past and heart-felt hopes of the future. Skilfully exploring modern ennui with sanguine missives about lost loves and found dreams.
“I’m trying to imagine what dreams would sound like. Flowing with my conscious; every sentence of every track has got meaning” Yayoyanoh emerged as an integral part of the cutting edge club continuum in 2014, helping to redefine and reshape the sound of contemporary underground culture as an affiliate of rebellious collectives Bala Club, and Endless. Exploding onto the scene as a beatmaker with the now infamous cut Miss Lady, he quickly evolved to take center stage as a vocalist on 4me with Uli-K, from Bala Club’s era-defining debut compilation.
With no other vocal features, Yayoyanoh – S/T is an assured and distinctive statement of intent.
Executive produced by Swedish prodigy and Year0001 affiliate Woesum, and featuring guest production from some of the most exciting talents in underground music; including Whitearmour, Oozini, Gud, Dinamarca, 106mido, and Sebastian Ruslan.
Masterfully pieced together by his lush and boundary-pushing production and engineering this is Woesum’s first long-form project since his acclaimed ‘Blue Summer Mix-Tape’ (2021). The album opens with ‘One for me’, an intoxicating rush of polished synths and sparse drum hits. Yayoyanoh’s vocal descends, angel-like, into focus with subtlety and complexity as he weaves tales of bitter-sweet anguish and love loss.
Sad Summer is an ambitious and exhilarating cut of heart-on-sleeve euphoria; a skittering, luminous Sebastian Ruslan produced beat ricocheting beneath the effervescent vocals. Both exuberant and inward-looking with lyrics referencing both struggles and aspirations, ‘quit my job the same day I hit a lick’ contrasting with the haunting affirmation ‘i die for you. Yayoyanoh and Woesum have together crafted a work of art that innovates at every turn, a celebratory collision of genres that stands on its own as a transcendent moment in contemporary pop music.
“Album of the DAY.” BANDCAMP
“Yayoyanoh is developing a unique mixture of softer wavy trap music with positive electronic sounds and dancehall-inspired rhythms.” SWINE DAILY
Format: LP (Digital/ Vinyl)
Release Date: 04.04.22
We are excited to announce the release of “Chaos Butterfly” the debut album from Vietnamese-Canadian electronic music producer, vocalist and filmmaker x/o.
An epic tale of catharsis and self-actualization explored through metamorphosis. It is a free-falling kaleidoscopic journey into a beautiful nightmare, both cataclysmic and tender. Expanding on the themes present in their first EP “Cocoon Egg”, the album builds a parallel world from a different perspective.
Throughout the voyage, x/o pulls apart and collides masculine and feminine tropes both theoretically and musically by utilizing contrasts between soft and hard, internal and external, calmness and anger, loud and quiet. This system of symbolism and influences reveal a pattern that is the overarching theme of duality.
Colliding disparate but interconnected influences, x/o references Playstation 2’s Final Fantasy X world-building, Fight Club, the half-yoma warriors in the anime Claymore, as well as the real legends of the Vietnamese Trưng Sisters.
Resisting easy categorization, playfully fusing moments of breakbeats, with elements of solemn ambience, distorted metal, and trip-hop catharsis, with inspiration from artists such as Yoko Kanno, to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as well as Deftones, Massive Attack, Orbital, and Aaliyah.
The album journey begins with opener “Chrysalis Wrath”, a prologue to the story, and emblematic of the metamorphosis of the album. A soft and unassuming exterior to the hard shell and bone that lies beneath. Delicately cascading melodies and disembodied vocals are torn asunder by a brooding, ominous synth, punctuated by blasts of percussion, like dark clouds forming on the horizon, the egg cracks; a foretelling of what is to come and a reference to what has been.
Duality is never more apparent than on “Promise : Armour” delicate piano melodies drift and settle like snowfall before crushing blows of hardstyle kicks blast through the ether, as their soulful, but anguished vocal harmony is overcome by a demonic refrain “Cross your heart, don’t cross me”.
x/o is a founding member of s.M.i.L.e, a trail-blazing collective of like-minded artists in Vancouver pushing the boundaries of club experimentation, showcasing artists such as Actress, Hitmakerchinx, Mechatok, Nídia, and Shygirl.
Themes of duality, rebirth and metamorphosis inform this thrilling experimental club debut LP. RESIDENT ADVISOR
“dream-infused slow-mo bangers, full of breakbeats and unignorable choruses. Songs not to be saved for dark December evenings, but to be blared out of the windows of cars driving wet neon-lit streets.” LOUD & QUIET
Format: LP (Digital/ Vinyl)
Release Date: 16.10.20
Surrender is the debut full length from DJ, producer, and songwriter Endgame. Stepping out for the first time as a vocalist, and lyricist, Surrender is his most ambitious and vulnerable work to date; a striking statement of intent, with moments of beauty and brutality.
Endgame has carved an iconoclastic niche in club culture. Breaking into the scene as co-founder of the legendary collective Bala Club, and resident of the radical club-night Endless. Whilst continuing almost a decade hosting his infamous NTS radio show (and now label) Precious Metals, he has forged a path against the tide of formulaic club music.
A visionary DJ and producer, Surrender sees Endgame continue this trajectory, with a project that both amplifies the ferocious club constructions he’s known for, whilst making space to open up wounded memories and with sombre unfeigned requiems.
Surrender is a deeply personal record, about loss and finding meaning in despair. Death is a prevailing theme, with the passing of his father a totemic subject. The recollection of his father’s torturous final moments leaves him to mournfully contemplate temporality. Using this sense of anguish, he blurs reality–creating a world where angels and demons are among us in a decaying cityscape; akin to the work of Todd McFarlane. The opener Faithless, propels us into this world, with the slow build of industrial precision amidst the sombre build of harsh melodic synths.
We descend deeper into this vision with Barbed Heart, featuring a defining vocal from scene staple and long time collaborator Yayoyanoh, as 808’s and skittering hi hats ricochet off one another beneath his bass driven vocal. No Heroes continues our journey into the unknown with a chaotic rush of acidic riffs, pounding percussion, and a reference to the brutalist anthem from hardcore punk band Converge (where the track borrows its name).
The thematic haze thickens in Abyss, as the pulsating and doom laden instrumental interweaves with Endgame’s sepulchral vocal. Like a message from the void, his words act as an agnostic hymn that pulls apart his sense of self. The contrast of his plaintive verse with the intensity of the instrumental creates a contrast that is symbolic of the record itself, a duality that presents moments of soft reflection against a severe sonic palette to create moments of transcendence.
“Album of the week.” BLEEP.COM
“A heartfelt and haunting exploration of grief through the lens of contemporary club music.” EMEKA OKONKWO, RESIDENT ADVISOR
“It’s a dark album, that layers contemporary anxiety and unease into sifi club forms, but it’s not suffocating or indulgent.” BOOMKAT.COM
Format: EP (DIGITAL)
Release Date: 11.12.20
The second instalment from Precious Metals sees another debut from a South London artist, Peckham’s First Circle. Their self titled EP is a blistering and vital rush of corrosive synths, metal guitar riffs and booming baselines. An urgent and foreboding record that establishes him at the forefront of underground club music.
Notorious for wild edits and ruthless instrumentals, First Circle brings melodic intensity and punishing rhythms to his debut EP. A prolific producer, known for fearsome Dj sets, a regular on Rinse, NTS, Croydon FM and underground club nights such as Near Dark. Releasing a number of era defining mixtapes in the process, including most recently with Croydon based grime provocateur and Brigade Network affiliate Nammy Wams.
First Circle is an anarchic and fierce distillation of genre, both urgent and intoxicating, combining the gritty synths of a squat rave with the clean sonorous 808’s of UK Drill. In his own words, these tunes are definitely for a rig, and the mud floor of a former wrecking yard’. Creating a cinematic depiction of a brutal future London, interspersed with moments of hope and pathos. A technological punk dystopia, sitting somewhere between Tank Girl and Existenz.
We launch head first into this vision with the searing anthem of Untitled (The Push). The worlds of metal and club collide euphorically as the haunted vocal sample swirls like a storm gathering intensity. 808’s rattle like thunder through a city-scape, whilst the percussion strikes with ruthless precision amidst the chaos.
The punk energy continues into Bitter?, a violent slab of intense synths and disembodied vocals which draws you into darkness. The doom laden mantra of ‘it always begins but never ends’ is a disorientating backdrop to the intense rush of industrial synths and drill influenced bass line. A smouldering and severe sound which is unapologetically London. Within the machinery is a defined sense of melancholy, in the
established tradition of London club music, acknowledging the influence of the pioneers like Ruff Sawad and Kid D.
The closer Shout reflects this sense of poignancy as the solemn piano melody glides over cavernous drums and scattershot hi-hats, like light piercing through the broken glass of a warhorse raveat 8am. Both a mournful moment of reflection and an ominous
forewarning of what’s to come.
“an anarchic and fierce distillation of genre, both urgent and intoxicating” INSERT
“Unearthing raw inner city sounds” Resident Advisor
Format: EP (DIGITAL)
Release Date: 16.10.20
Caveat is the debut release from South London artist Severin Glance. It is a pulsating and vital distillation of club movements, at once euphoric and dystopian. Emerging as the first ever release on Precious Metals – Endgame’s new label, an extension of his long running radio show on NTS – Caveat inaugurates the birth of the label as a platform, aiming to shine a light to artists that have yet to be unearthed, and to reflect the true unruliness of the underground.
Severin Glance has gained a cult following for his edits and re-workings of rap and pop songs into atmospheric club re-imaginations. Caveat sees him launch his first release as an artist in his own right.
Telling his story of love-loss, heart-break and hope in the heart of the city, he contemplates a misspent youth, and ‘acknowledges duality’. Taking note of the influence of his time spent living in Florida when he was younger, he reminisces on how culture informed his music, “Spent out cars with big rims that hold huge systems played the harder songs; showing off the low ends of the subs. All We Do by Jeezy was playing in one of those systems outside a gas station. It was so blown out all I could hear was the bass and vocal sample playing. It sounded so different–it changed the way I looked at songs.”
Tracks like Reign pull apart fragments of genres and build something entirely new in its place. Shards of dancehall, trance, trap and shoegaze reflect off one another like car lights in the rain. Threshold ex’s shimmering synths and punishing bass rattle through the subs of the empty club, as vocal samples come and go like passing traffic. As Sayal’s crystalline fragments of melody cascade throughout a dreamlike landscape that is at times both bleak and beautiful.
The record is an urgent reflection of the current moment but also aware of its place in the history of both London club music and the lineage of sound-system culture throughout uk dance music.
“Octobers best album.” Resident Advisor
“Reign” fuses elements from trap, trance and dancehall in a way that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.” Resident Advisor
Fact Mix FACT MAG
