by “It’s rare that we receive such a coherent and well-presented project with both strong musical + visual themes. We knew we had to showcase the entire LP rather than focusing on a select few tunes. This will be the first album in Never Say Die’s history from a debut artist.”
Incredibly powerful words from a label that has been in the game for over ten years and whose following is in the seven digits on SoundCloud alone. Balancing releases from established veterans and promising up-and-comers, Never Say Die have remained at the forefront of electronic music since their inception, often branching out to genres beyond the broad dubstep umbrella and welcoming all sorts of bass music creators. Their latest release is a special one, too, as it comes from an artist who, less than four months ago, had nothing to show on his SoundCloud. Based out of Hawaii, kuatari made his impressive debut on the legendary label last week with the LINEPULSE LP, a twelve-track journey meant to be listened to from start to finish without any interruptions.
Albeit incredible, 16-year-old kuatari only had four tracks on his SoundCloud before the release of LINEPULSE, so the announcement of this project has many questioning just how good it could be. Well, it certainly exceeds expectations. LINEPULSE is an exquisite exhibit of both pristine sound design and complex melodies that hint at experience well beyond kuatari’s years. It’s cohesive in sound and in theme, building into an epic expedition across various realms of bass music, often leaning towards dubstep but certainly not being labelled a dubstep project but any means. The mix of orchestral builds up, cutesy breaks, garage-leaning bridges and so much more makes LINEPULSE a soul-encompassing odyssey through a world only kuatari fully understands. Despite being available as separate tracks on Spotify, we highly urge listeners to dive into the SoundCloud album mix to get a full appreciation for LINEPULSE, and for kuatari as an artist.
If kuatari wasn’t on your radar before, he is now. Don’t sleep.
