Rob Clouth returns to Mesh with Cicada, a follow-up to his EP earlier this year and a continuation of his ever-curious approach to the outer limits of electronic music.

An artist who has spent much of his career committed to a dialogue between scientific phenomena and music built for big soundsystems, Bichillo signalled a segue into a more free-running idea of creativity - one that didn’t pander to unrealistic expectations and, essentially, brought the fun back to Rob’s production process. A theme also explored in a link-up with long-time collaborator and label boss Max Cooper on their recent joint EP 8 Billion Realities, out now on Mesh.

Cicada, he continues to expand on this universe, prioritising experimentation over concept, and arriving at some of the funnest music he’s ever made.

Like a field of insects, ‘Cicada’ opens with cross-rhythmic layers of animated glitches, soon joined by huge bass swells that gradually build into a maximal tranced out build-up and a swarm of vocal chops. ‘Core’ builds a quietly dramatic symphony of machinist built sound - a soothing polyphony of computers singing. Leaning into an off-kilter 2-step, ‘Gummy Clusters’ swirls into a hazy blur of distorted voices and acoustic rhythms. Closing things off, ‘Grefuser’ puts pedal to the metal with a high BPM storm of pointillist drums and melancholic leads.

Cicada is music that twitches and mutates, but most importantly, breathes fun into the circuitry.