Hekler is heading back over to the Bassrush Records catalog with his third release on the imprint.
There are few artists out there that know how to rattle the big rig quite like Shaun Bacus, the mastermind behind the colossal Hekler alias. The Las Vegas-based producer is sitting on a heavy-handed discography notorious for carrying an aggressive, subwoofer-flexing allure. His beats always go the hardest. And his most recent outing on the imprint, “Juggernaut” is all the evidence you need. However, he’s admittedly reached a turning point in his career in which he’s set on shedding his skin in order to reach the next level of his artistic vision. With his latest single, “Levitate,” we see the Bassrush regular clearing a path for the incoming of a Hekler version 2.0.
“‘Levitate’ is a special song to me because it marks the break of an era and the start of a new one—hence the name meaning ‘rise,’” says Hekler. “For years, I’ve only been focusing on going hard with my music and now I’m ready to grow from that and become the artist I’ve always wanted to be. ‘Levitate’ won’t be the last song of mine that is heavy, but it does mark a personal growth from within.”
Like a phoenix slowly rising from the ashes, the track creeps its way into existence through an eerie yet ethereal intro built around crisp 808s, bliss-inducing gong crashes, and circling synth sequences. As the intensity of the drums escalate to an inevitable breaking point, the vibe becomes highly volatile as bursts of brain-frying frequencies radiate upwards from the distorted slabs of the bottom-end. The energy settles back down into the ghostly elements for a brief breakdown before erupting back into the second round of mayhem. Through the dichotomous split between heavy and heavenly, Hekler opens up a new world of possibilities that we can’t wait to explore.