A is for Abdulla Rashim.
Aka, Anthony Linell, important as it’s who Acronym likens his sound to in his 3-sentence biography. There’s a close link between Acronym, Abdulla, and Jonas Ronnberg (Varg) which we’ll touch on later, and like many techno scenes that grow from a few tight knit folks influencing and pushing each other’s sounds forwards – this is no different.
“Acronym was kinda of the same story: I knew him before the music and then one day he started sending me stuff. From the beginning his music was really good and I was impressed by what he was doing.”
Unanimity (2014) and A Shell of Speed (2015) are albums well worth a listen to if you want to dig deeper into Abdulla Rashim, along with his early releases such as the energetic Gizaw (2011). And if you’re wondering, Anthony is a Swede through and through –
“Abdulla Rashim is a name I made up out of a long interest for the Arab world, in particular Levantine culture and politics. I’ve been studying Arabic at the University and I follow Al-Jazeera as close as Swedish news. I’m aware of how problematic this choice of name can be, the controversies surrounding it, and I know that it can be perceived as another brick in this exotifying culture we live in.”
C is for Cleansed in Fire.
Released in 2016 on his EP Guadalquivir it shows the breadth of Acronym’s production, and that he can damn well do ambient as well as he can do techno. Very noice.
R is for Reticent.
We’ll admit, Acronym has to be as hard to track down info on as SHXCXCHCXSH. In that sense he’s reticent but really not in others, with regular mixes and releases cropping up all the time, just check his facebook and soundcloud. Let the music do the talking. We’re fine with that.
O is for Off the Grid.
Looking to his newer work, on Acronym’s facebook from January 4th 2017 he states:
‘Excited to start this year filled with energy. With that said, this year marks the revival of something I thought was dead. Snippets are up for DIM004..’
N is for Northern Electronics.
Outside of Acronym’s own label Dimensional Exploration, Northern Electronics operating out of Stockholm is the label he is probably most aligned with, which has a distinct lightness, a subaquatic feel to the releases. It bagged label of the month on RA in 2015, who take a good look into the inner workings of the label’s sentiment:
“It’s really hard to translate it into words,” Rashim says. “It’s all about an emotion or an idea. I can hear it instantly. We all can.”
Run by Abdulla Rashim and Varg, Northern Electronics has also been the home to artists such as Ulwhednar, Lundin Oil (Abdulla’s alias), Dorisburg and Född Död (Vard and SARS). Can’t get more Nordic sounding than that!
Abdulla says of Acronym:
“He was already putting out stuff before he released on Northern Electronics, he even had his own label. So I just asked him to record something for me and he sent me “River Red Gum.” Korridor I got to know through the internet, he was living in Stockholm but we never met before I started doing music. Everybody on the label is in some way connected to friends.”
Y is for Years.
5 years in fact; Acronym has been releasing in earnest since 2012 on his Dimensional Exploration imprint, and has had a consistent output ever since, with over a dozen releases in this time. We would strongly advise a quiet hour or so trawling discogs, live sets and mixes, you won’t regret it.
M is for Meat Free.
Where Acronym will be playing for us for his Manchester debut in Soup Kitchen on Friday, 21st July 2017. This segues a long journey from NYC, Malmo, and Budapest before he heads onto Leipzig.
So please!
Come and join us for some Swedish and distinctly Northern influenced techno from a rising star, Acronym.
