In early 2014 a Southern-based producer emerged with an industrial sound that diverged away from every signifier associated with Southern rap. HANZ’s Reducer was a stylistic departure from the South and even with a handful of contemporaries that navigate the overlapping terrain of musique concrète, dystopian, and industrial (Death Grips, clipping., B.L.A.C.K.I.E., El-P, 3:33), his debut did not suffer from peer worship.
On his latest single “Sink (You Know)”, HANZ momentarily mimics the click-track skip that clipping. often utilize, but with added textures of vocal stems. The blip of “you know” suggests we’re supposed to be fully aware, but HANZ consistently tucks trapdoors and sharp corners into his production, arousing the same anxieties that come with subjecting oneself to a haunted house. “Sink (You Know)” arrives ahead of Devil’s Night and Halloween with good reason, it can be added to the terror-ambiance of front porches, basement mazes, and strobe light hallways that reduce our foot pace to timid baby steps.
