Primal Instinct is the label sharing the science behind techno

Chlär has launched label Primal Instinct, in collaboration with Alarico and The Chronics.

To accompany the launch came the announcement of an EP from Funk Assault – the duo of Chlär and Alarico – with the vinyl already selling out twice the number planned to press.

This week [June 30] marked the release of the EP’s digital edition, which comprises of five tracks, whittled down from dozens by the pair. The first four tracks, Chlär explains, “embodies the sound” he is trying to create on Primal Instinct: an organic digital sound, with groovy and repetitive patterns.

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“The label is something I’ve been thinking about for a while,” he tells Mixmag. Prior to the pandemic, whilst playing Radion Amsterdam, the producer and DJ played a track which triggered a frenetic reaction from the crowd. That moment had a marked impact on Chlär, who then began to read into the science and psychology behind music and the brain.

Already keen on academic research, he firstly defined techno music as having “a focus on complex groovy patterns generated by advanced, yet organic sound design, unifying the two antipodes that create the essence of techno: Primitivism and Innovation.”

“Tracing back music history, human beings have a fundamental relationship with drums, percussions and more broadly, the groove,” he continues. “Music historians like to call it a “universal language” and neurologists use syncopation as an example of this intrinsic drive we have for complex rhythmic structures.”

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He then found studies that suggested that by blending loopy repetition – prime in techno music – with an emphasis on low-end bass sounds, which human brains are “wired to be sensitive” to, triggers a “primitive need to dance, both cognitively and musically”.

“My whole life I felt conflicted internally because being a DJ / producer is not only tiring, but tough when you are sensitive to the opinions of others,” he concludes on the motivation behind the immense research driving Primal Instinct.

“In our society, this job is viewed as one of clowns. The common opinion is that a DJ / producer is someone who takes drugs and presses play. I’ve always struggled with this because I’ve been raised in an environment that taught me this. This returns to my internal conflict: I’m trying to prove that the work I do is not pointless.”

Accompanying visuals for the label are equally deeply thought-out. Created by FEMUR using AI-fuelled animation and artwork, its use intends to cement Primal Instinct‘s position as something which unites primitive, historic instincts, with innovation, something the labelfounder dubs a “historical ingredient of techno music” that simultaneously “permeates our modern society”.