by Bursting onto our radar with a barrage of bizarre and banging releases on Quality Goods Records, Hypergeneration has captivated our attention with a sound that fuses hyperpop, hard-hitting trap, and an underlying social commentary on our addiction to technology and social media. The dichotomy between the internet-inspired sound and the critique of our need for constant over-stimulation creates an intriguing juxtaposition that’s thought-provoking and deeply entertaining. If you’re a fan of artists like SOPHIE, umru, TNGHT, and UZ, and you haven’t given the relatively unknown artist a listen, there’s no time like the present.
Connecting with us for our 247th Guest Mix + Interview, Hypergeneration unleashes a frenetic half-hour of head-spinning electronic music that mixes a wide array of his own originals with the works that inspired the project. The interview is a must-read with us discussing his artistic journey, mixing sweet and dark, social media addiction, the idea of disconnecting, AI, and much more. This is one of the more interesting conversations I’ve had with an artist as of late. So don’t sleep.
Tell us about the mix. What should listeners expect when they press play?
The mix is a pretty high-octane blend of all kinds of music. Some absolute classics that my music draws inspiration from, a bunch of ID’s and ruthless beats.
One of the questions that I asked myself was “How far can I take a piece of music, structurally and sound design wise, before it becomes too much?” Within the Hypergeneration project I constantly try to find the answer to this question.
What inspired you to start making music? How has your journey evolved?
I’ve been making music under different aliases for a long time and found myself and while I have always loved producing music, I did find myself becoming more and more careful to not make ‘extreme’ electronic music. As if something in my mind had made me become scared of doing something that’s really out there. After all those years, one of the questions that I asked myself was “How far can I take a piece of music, structurally and sound design wise, before it becomes too much?” Within the Hypergeneration project I constantly try to find the answer to this question.
Your sound mixes hyperpop with a heavy-hitting gold-era trap sound. What birthed this fusion?
I feel I have a lot of incredible artists to thank for inspiring me to blend these sounds together. SOPHIE, MssingNo, Lunice, AWE, UZ, umru, all great minds and souls that have, in their own ways, paved the way for this blend of music. What I aim to do is to create my own take on it, and push the production and song structures to it’s limits even more. There’s something so inherently fun about making music in this realm. There are no rules. And the combination of super aggressive production, hard-hitting 808’s and kicks, with sugary sweet vocals is something that really clicks for me at this stage.
There is definitely a sense of dread that seeps through the cracks of the music this way. Almost like looking at a happy family portrait and noticing in the background there’s a house on fire.
There’s an interesting dichotomy between the sugary sweet vocals and dark and heavy production on many of your tracks. Can you speak to that contrast and what it represents?
I think for me the definition of that dichotomy in my music is ‘sugarcoated chaos’. It tastes sweet at first, but when you really start to listen or look into the lyrics, you’ll find that it’s chaotic in nature. For me there is definitely a sense of dread that seeps through the cracks of the music this way. Almost like looking at a happy family portrait and noticing in the background there’s a house on fire. I feel that a lot of that dread stems from my views on modern technology and society. At the moment, a lot of terrifying stuff is happening all around the world, and somehow there is still a tendency to sugarcoat the chaos and cover it up with digital bandaids.
What does Hypergeneration mean to you?
Hypergeneration to me is something we are all part of in a way. Our attention spans are shortening, consumerism in both the physical and digital realm are reaching new heights all the time, and it does feel like a never ending cycle to me sometimes. I think that we are in an era of existential dilemmas maybe even more so than an era of technological development.
From ‘Doomscroll,’ to ‘Cloud Monkey,’ and ‘Candyland’ a lot of your work seems to be rooted in commentary around our addictions to technology and social media. How do you navigate these things within your own life?
The main thing I try to achieve with my commentary is to make it super over the top so I can find ridicule in the topics I comment on. For me, ridicule helps to make it feel less of a doomsday spiral. It’s my way of sugarcoating the chaos of modern digital existence. For instance in Cloud Monkey, I wrote it from a perspective where our online user data and cloud data would be controlled by a literal monkey in the clouds. The monkey knows everything about us, it knows what we crave, and we will never be able to get it out of our lives anymore. It’s just there, looming over our heads all the time, eating tracking cookies and intercepting our social media traffic. In my own life I tend to take breaks from everything social media every now and then. There’s just so so so much that we see and absorb on these platforms. However strong I think I am, I just know that a lot of the stuff that’s being fed to me on socials, will reach me, and stick with me for a while. The more I accept that it is in fact an addiction, the more I can actually start to change something about it.
I would say that we don’t need to disconnect, but I feel we could benefit from some balance by also connecting more on a personal, human level. Breaking away from endlessly scrolling every now and then to touch grass and meet new people sounds like something that could really help.
Do you think the world would be better off if we were more disconnected?
I would not say being more disconnected would help. I do believe that our current sense of what that ‘connection’ actually means is skewed. Connectedness in the sense of being chronically online and being able to interact with anything and everything, all of the time (thank you Bo Burnham) with zero accountability feels like a very shallow and unfulfilling form of connection in the long term. And I think that shallowness leaves a lot of room for our fears, anxieties, and uncertainties to grow into unpleasant levels or even hateful rhetoric. Actual human connection with the world around us can be so much more complex and scary, but also much more rewarding in my personal opinion. So to answer your question, I would say that we don’t need to disconnect, but I feel we could benefit from some balance by also connecting more on a personal, human level. Breaking away from endlessly scrolling every now and then to touch grass and meet new people sounds like something that could really help.
The rise of AI has been a hot topic in the past few years. Do you utilize the technology? How do you feel about it overall?
I do utilize some parts of AI, mainly in the visual department I find it to be fun to experiment with. The technological achievements in the field of AI are nothing short of incredible to me, although there is a part of it that confuses me and sometimes scares me. For me the main fear of AI is it’s combination with social media. I think that is a doomsday cocktail of immense proportions waiting to happen (or already happening). At this point in time, we already have a hard time determining if a video is a fake or not and if something is written by AI or not. Imagine what that will be like in a few years time. There’s no way around AI implementation in more and more of our lives so my view is to embrace the cool parts of it, and keep a close look eye on the scary effects it can have on society. I also think it creates the need for ‘AI counter culture’ where people will want to go to concerts or see creatives in a live setting because they want that human aspect to connect with.
How did you connect with Quality Goods Records? What’s it been like working with the label?
They heard some of the music in the early stages and we’re very enthusiastic about it. The team behind the label is absolutely incredible and very structured. It felt like a breath of fresh air to work with a team so dedicated to putting out music that they believe in and also being very kind and helpful, especially for a freshly starting artist like myself.
What’s the last piece of art (movie, book, film, painting, song, album, etc.) that deeply impacted you, and what made it resonate with you?
I personally really enjoyed the film ‘American Fiction’ because of it’s story and soundtrack. The film itself caught me so off guard and is in a way a bit of a paradox (trying not to spoil anything here). In terms of music I have been loving the latest Tierra Whack album. I had been waiting for that for a while.
What’s on the horizon for you in the future?
I’m definitely eager to release more music in the near future to expand on the world I am building. There’s a bunch of ID’s in this mix that will hopefully see the light of day soon.
Any final thoughts you’d like to share?
I wanted to say thanks to you for giving me this opportunity and asking me these questions. This was honestly a very fun mix to make and these questions were spot on.
Hypergenration FUXWITHIT Tracklist
1. Hypergeneration – ID
2. MssingNo – Scope (Hypergeneration Bootleg)
3. Lunice – No Commas (Dansa Remix)
4. Hypergeneration – ID
5. Hypergeneration – Algorithm
6. Hypergeneration – Science
7. Hudson Mohawke & Nikki Nair – Demuro
8. SOPHIE – Immaterial
9. TNGHT – Acrylics
10. G Jones & Eprom – R.A.V.E.
11. Louis Futon – She Loves Me Not (Hypergeneration Remix)
12. Hypergeneration – ID
13. AWE – Rackem
14. Hypergeneration – Stats
15. Hypergeneration – ID
16. Hypergeneration – Non Flexible Tony
17. Hypergeneration – Cloud Monkey
18. Hypergeneration – Candyland
19. Machinedrum – BTHE1 (feat. LIZ)
20. Hypergeneration – Doomscroll
21. G Jones – Dancing On The Edge
22. umru, Petal Supply ft. Rebecca Black – heart2 (mashup with
Furyan – Bass Journey)
