Who Goes There Ambient Babestation Meltdown / JBS

“Who Goes There”, the debut collaborative release from Ambient Babestation Meltdown and JBS arrives on Optimo Music bathed in reverence to science-fiction and the infinite, charged possibilities of interplay between raw electronics and the human voice. Both well-respected figures on the London underground scene, each of the four tracks across the EP are inspired by film and literature, expanding well-worn VHS classics into sonic mini-sequels.

The voice of Ambient Babestation Meltdown will be familiar to anyone who has spent time lurking in the further reaches of Sky television’s hundreds of channels, a recognisable register in the Adult Entertainment industry, work that has naturally informed her work and artist persona. On ‘Litany Against Fear’, that same voice has a less seductive timbre, reminding us cooly that “We must not fear… Fear is the mind killer”, a monologue that’s quickly engulfed in an electrically charged sandstorm.

A greater sense of urgency drives the new-beat stomp of ‘Dead Or Alive’, an icy-cold jam that jacks and glitches our otherwise reliable narrator, who keenly reminds us that somewhere there is a crime happening. Keep your head down while dancing, and remember, bad language makes for bad feelings… The tempo slows to cybernetic sludge on ‘The Other Place’, a piercing and heavy anti-anthem that returns from the deep cosmos, liable to slowly stretch a rift in the space-time/dancefloor continuum.

The mood grows more conspiratorial still but no less compelling, decamping into sonic isolation as our narrator investigates a disturbance on title track ‘Who Goes There’, accompanied by a rugged and powerful rhythm that might have come from the mind of John Carpenter. “Somebody in this room is not what they say they are…” The end of the record? You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.