rat093: beast nest "sicko"

rat093: BEAST NEST "SICKO"

2022 - LP/DL

Sicko is a freak 4 freak, crazy 4 crazy wet blankie. This album was hobbled together over the years following the Ghost Ship fire which occurred December 2nd, 2016. It’s been 5 years (wild) and I believe all us survivors are vastly different people since then. My mental health issues were always a bit out of control and the aftermath of Ghost Ship, despite the labor of love that went into a massive mutual aid effort I had rarely experienced before, sent my brain into a deep, perhaps necessary, pit. The work that birthed this album was my rope, and while some of these sounds and songs feel old, they were built slowly and with the support of my friends. I am so grateful for medication and the disability justice community. I am deeply grateful for my fellow sick in the head friends who are dedicated to working on themselves and with each other. I am really grateful for all the people in my life who choose to stay connected to me despite some not cute behavior, and I feel additionally grateful for those who hear me when I call them out on the same.

All my music is dedicated to Beni and the Queer and Trans freaks that make my life so fun and wholesome and nerdy and joyful and cool and weird. I want safety and empowerment for us all. I want us to make stuff when we want to and consume stuff when we want to. I want us to have shelter and whatever we need to feel the least shitty on our shitty days and super happy on our happy days.

"A sonic journey comprising of six tracks, Sharmi Basu’s "Sicko" is the zenith to their expansive catalog of experimental compositions that meditates on envisioning a sense of personal and collective liberation. This forty-four minute long masterpiece bends, weaves, repeats, deconstructs then rebuilds sound to formulate a new language of healing communicated uniquely through the world of Beast Nest. As a prominent educator and healer within their community, Basu’s artistic output has always been connected to sharing the power of compassion, and how to create tangible bonds between marginalized people through music. Even in the most dissonant valleys of Sicko’s sonic landscape, Basu never abandons their listener. Rather, they descend into darkness with you as the instrumentation surrounds you with the rhythmic pulse of various arpeggiators and drawn out sound textures crescendoing up to the LP’s closing waves of bliss.

"Sicko" offers more to the listener than just an album — it is an experience of aural idiosyncrasies and multi-dimensional processes that lead one to find solace away from the colonialist confines of the material world. Upon multiple replays of this album, I was reminded of the catharsis I felt when I first fell in love with Beast Nest’s work: a sense of communal healing Basu generously offers to those closest to the heart of their artistic vision."

— Sepehr Mashiahof, Bedroom Witch

"Sharmi Basu delivers an interplanetary opera of diasporic survival. The tracks lead one on a journey of perseverance and/of sound. One’s feet loses contact with the ground and one’s imagination collides with the sensorial immediacy of the moment. And while it is a narrative firmly placed in joy and discovery, it presents a model or trajectory of how harmony cannot exist without dissonance and richness can only extend out from origins of emptiness. “Sicko” is disembodied and yet simultaneous grounding, questioning one’s reliance on mainstream narratives of direction. It is a multivocal party in a world in which even music receives the violence of categorization and conclusion. This album is the sound of persistence of joy in a world where one must question the surplus and generation of body supremacies. We are carried through on the beat and the unavoidable need to move together in dynamic times."

— Marlo De Lara (she/they/siya), hailing from the Piscataway Nanticoke lands on 14 August 2021. Love and light always. Solidarity forever.

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Sicko

Beast Nest

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Sicko is a freak 4 freak, crazy 4 crazy wet blankie. This album was hobbled together over the years following the Ghost Ship fire which occurred December 2nd, 2016. It’s been 5 years (wild) and I believe all us survivors are vastly different people since then. My mental health issues were always a bit out of control and the aftermath of Ghost

Sicko is a freak 4 freak, crazy 4 crazy wet blankie. This album was hobbled together over the years following the Ghost Ship fire which occurred December 2nd, 2016. It’s been 5 years (wild) and I believe all us survivors are vastly different people since then. My mental health issues were always a bit out of control and the aftermath of Ghost Ship, despite the labor of love that went into a massive mutual aid effort I had rarely experienced before, sent my brain into a deep, perhaps necessary, pit. The work that birthed this album was my rope, and while some of these sounds and songs feel old, they were built slowly and with the support of my friends. I am so grateful for medication and the disability justice community. I am deeply grateful for my fellow sick in the head friends who are dedicated to working on themselves and with each other. I am really grateful for all the people in my life who choose to stay connected to me despite some not cute behavior, and I feel additionally grateful for those who hear me when I call them out on the same.

All my music is dedicated to Beni and the Queer and Trans freaks that make my life so fun and wholesome and nerdy and joyful and cool and weird. I want safety and empowerment for us all. I want us to make stuff when we want to and consume stuff when we want to. I want us to have shelter and whatever we need to feel the least shitty on our shitty days and super happy on our happy days. — Sharmi Basu, Beast Nest

"A sonic journey comprising of six tracks, Sharmi Basu’s "Sicko" is the zenith to their expansive catalog of experimental compositions that meditates on envisioning a sense of personal and collective liberation. This forty-four minute long masterpiece bends, weaves, repeats, deconstructs then rebuilds sound to formulate a new language of healing communicated uniquely through the world of Beast Nest. As a prominent educator and healer within their community, Basu’s artistic output has always been connected to sharing the power of compassion, and how to create tangible bonds between marginalized people through music. Even in the most dissonant valleys of Sicko’s sonic landscape, Basu never abandons their listener. Rather, they descend into darkness with you as the instrumentation surrounds you with the rhythmic pulse of various arpeggiators and drawn out sound textures crescendoing up to the LP’s closing waves of bliss.

"Sicko" offers more to the listener than just an album — it is an experience of aural idiosyncrasies and multi-dimensional processes that lead one to find solace away from the colonialist confines of the material world. Upon multiple replays of this album, I was reminded of the catharsis I felt when I first fell in love with Beast Nest’s work: a sense of communal healing Basu generously offers to those closest to the heart of their artistic vision."

— Sepehr Mashiahof, Bedroom Witch

"Sharmi Basu delivers an interplanetary opera of diasporic survival. The tracks lead one on a journey of perseverance and/of sound. One’s feet loses contact with the ground and one’s imagination collides with the sensorial immediacy of the moment. And while it is a narrative firmly placed in joy and discovery, it presents a model or trajectory of how harmony cannot exist without dissonance and richness can only extend out from origins of emptiness. “Sicko” is disembodied and yet simultaneous grounding, questioning one’s reliance on mainstream narratives of direction. It is a multivocal party in a world in which even music receives the violence of categorization and conclusion. This album is the sound of persistence of joy in a world where one must question the surplus and generation of body supremacies. We are carried through on the beat and the unavoidable need to move together in dynamic times."

— Marlo De Lara (she/they/siya),

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Kim, People Are Dying 7:23

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QUOTES

"As a composer and sound artist, Basu raises the bar for contemporary electronic performance conceptually, emotionally and spiritually. In my experience, the sounds of Sharmi Basu’s Beast Nest fill the room in more nuanced ways than with any other artist. From an audience perspective, the sonic presence of Beast Nest is a powerful and unforgettable transmission; the sound is at once all-encompassing, yet caring, tiny and delicate. Beast Nest’s music is compositionally and sonically layered in an unparalleled futuristic style, seamed with empathy and compassion. Each layer is a world within itself, and within those layers, the audience is offered seemingly endless sonic discoveries enveloping the serene space around them. “Sicko”, the newest full length studio album from Beast Nest, is all this and more; subtle, vulnerable, complex, chaotic, and beautiful. These sounds hold up mirrors to the self and serve as vehicles of discovery, accountability, and actualization. If the sound of Beast Nest on “Sicko” can be summed up in one word it would be “empowering” — an apt description for the very person who creates these worlds for us to discover. "Sicko" is Basu's strongest work yet and a masterclass in contemporary and timeless electronic music. “Kim, People are Dying” is Beast Nest’s first single off of “Sicko”, and the music video will be released leading up to the album’s full release in January 2022."

— Michael Daddona, Ratskin Records

"A sonic journey comprising of six tracks, Sharmi Basu’s "Sicko" is the zenith to their expansive catalog of experimental compositions that meditates on envisioning a sense of personal and collective liberation. This forty-four minute long masterpiece bends, weaves, repeats, deconstructs then rebuilds sound to formulate a new language of healing communicated uniquely through the world of Beast Nest. As a prominent educator and healer within their community, Basu’s artistic output has always been connected to sharing the power of compassion, and how to create tangible bonds between marginalized people through music. Even in the most dissonant valleys of Sicko’s sonic landscape, Basu never abandons their listener. Rather, they descend into darkness with you as the instrumentation surrounds you with the rhythmic pulse of various arpeggiators and drawn out sound textures crescendoing up to the LP’s closing waves of bliss.

Sicko offers more to the listener than just an album — it is an experience of aural idiosyncrasies and multi-dimensional processes that lead one to find solace away from the colonialist confines of the material world. Upon multiple replays of this album, I was reminded of the catharsis I felt when I first fell in love with Beast Nest’s work: a sense of communal healing Basu generously offers to those closest to the heart of their artistic vision."

— Sepehr Mashiahof, Bedroom Witch

"Sharmi Basu delivers an interplanetary opera of diasporic survival. The tracks lead one on a journey of perseverance and/of sound. One’s feet loses contact with the ground and one’s imagination collides with the sensorial immediacy of the moment. And while it is a narrative firmly placed in joy and discovery, it presents a model or trajectory of how harmony cannot exist without dissonance and richness can only extend out from origins of emptiness. “Sicko” is disembodied and yet simultaneous grounding, questioning one’s reliance on mainstream narratives of direction. It is a multivocal party in a world in which even music receives the violence of categorization and conclusion. This album is the sound of persistence of joy in a world where one must question the surplus and generation of body supremacies. We are carried through on the beat and the unavoidable need to move together in dynamic times."

— Marlo De Lara (she/they/siya), hailing from the Piscataway Nanticoke lands on 14 August 2021. Love and light always. Solidarity forever.

"SICKO" Press

The Quietus "Sicko" Review

"Sicko sits in the gap between introversion and reaching out for connection. Deep, heady worlds of luminous synth pads and bristling arpeggiators sitting alongside overlapped beats of pounding elation. What unites it is sheer intensity and diversity of sound. It’s not intimidating, these vibrations feel like a supportive nudge out of familiarity, a glimpse into a new perspective." - Daryl Worthington

https://thequietus.com/articles/31045-beast-nest-sicko-review

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Whitecrate SF "Best New bay Area Music"

"Deeply embedded in the queer and trans BIPOC communities in the Bay, not to mention various DIY and music-focused organizations, Beast Nest’s latest album is a psychedelic sanctuary assembled of cosmic noise and tone. Sampled bird calls, twitchy synths, and low-key beats come together in a soulful tapestry suitable for the morning, day, or night—in other words, it’s for living."

https://whitecrate.substack.com/p/queer-south-asian-electronic-artist

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"Sicko" Review in Bandcloud #376

"Beast Nest’s Taste Of India, released in 2016, was a startlingly impressive piece of work that stays with me to this day. This new album is released on Ratskin and it features some amazing Kardashian-inspired titles (‘Kim, People Are Dying’, ‘Ur Doing Great Sweaty’). The music moves between densely rich ambient sounds and bizarrely buoyant dance music. There’s a plodding stomp of a track that fizzes with early electronics before exploding into a genuine sonic whirlwind. Beast Nest references the Ghost Ship fire of 2016 as a kind of genesis point, a point at which they entered a “deep, perhaps necessary, pit”. The album, or the work that preceded it, provided a rope of escape, and it’s possible to hear all that pain and joy and catharsis, even from thousands of miles away, be they physical and experiential."

https://bandcloud.substack.com/p/bandcloud-376

"Sicko" Review in Blogcritics

https://blogcritics.org/music-review-beast-nest-sicko/

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