What happens when the monster under your bed leaves his hideaway to roam Atlanta's streets? Well, monsters aren't real, dodo, but we figure it'd sound akin to the villainous emanations from Descender's red-lit home studio.It's a noise brash enough to garner an OWSLA release, a remix for Tiga and Boys Noize, and a joint label project with fellow ATLien Daniel Disaster, of Heroes x Villain's fame.Descender's music is an industrial, chaotic, pulsating sound, exactly what a middle-school goth turned on to drum'n'bass should make. "I was really into Nine Inch Nails in middle school, and Marilyn Manson. Everything my mom told me not to do, I was doing," Descender says, known to his poor mother as Robby Phillips.
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"When I was like 15, my friend put on this Dieselboy 6ixth Sessions and "The Messiah" song came on, the first song," Phillips continues. "He cranked it up, and I had no idea what was about to happen. It just rattled my brain."
From there, things became more complex. Phillips escaped his childhood home of Augusta, GA., a place he describes as "a really boring place. They have golf," he scoffs. "That place is so small. Everyone's like 'oh, we're gonna do this and that,' and everyone just does drugs. I had to get out of there, because nobody was getting anywhere and nobody cared."In 2011, after a few years of back and forth flirtation, he made the big move to Atlanta where, coincidentally, he roomed with then-unknown, present dubstep dynamo Must Die! The influence of the hustlers around him proved immediately fruitful."He worked every day, like I'm doing now, and I think that was a big influence on me," Phillips says. "It's definitely nice to be around people that are making moves and wanting to go to the next level."The new setting also opened his mind to hybrids of new sounds. After about a year's searching, he struck gold in the underground techno scene. Just as much, while dorming in Gucci Mane's A-town Thug University, the trap influence is unavoidable."The whole rap scene is just kind of crazy, but when you actually live here and ride around the town, you can just feel that vibe," Phillips says. "Even in my neighborhood, you see the stuff that goes on in these rap songs, what these people are talking about, so it's really easy to connect with it."
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As Descender, he molds all these stark influences into a hybrid of looming sounds from the street, underbelly, and otherwise. That fresh approach is what brought Phillips and Disaster together. They recently made their attraction official by announcing new label VAVLT. It's got the same name as Disaster's successful party series, and Phillips says you should expect nothing but prime-cut bass in any and all forms."(It's all about) the attitude, aesthetic," Phillips says. "The music has to be good, number one. If I like it, and Danielle likes it, that's basically the requirement."Want to get on the cutting edge of Atlanta's good side? Study the definitive mix Descender dropped on Thump's listeners. It's a solid hour of boot-stomping originals, edits, and remixes, with some music from friends and upcoming VAVLT releases for good measure – and some Gucci Mane, because Atlanta.Descender is on Facebook // SoundCloud // TwitterTracklist:
Descender - Dark Energy
Tiga Vs Boys Noize - 100 (Descender Remix)
Descender - Pulsar
KMRT - Warehouse Acid Funk
Descender & KMRT - AUX
Static Starlight - Lazarus
Clouds - Those Cracks In Your Face, Do They Hurt (Truss Remix)
Rob Threezy - Technotitlan
Descender - Tunnel Vision
Descender - Reflect
Keepsakes - Get Off My Lawn (INTERFERON Remix)
Maelstrom - Introduction to Entropy
Descender - Aphelion
Negativ & Merce - Husky Kicks (Descender Remix VIP)
Arkajo - Månfas
12 x 12 - Kobayashi Maru
KMRT & Static Starlight - Candance (Descender Remix)
Descender & HXV - Clubbin
Gesaffelstein, Jean-Michel Jarre - Conquistador (JMJ Remix)
Descender - Desolation
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From there, things became more complex. Phillips escaped his childhood home of Augusta, GA., a place he describes as "a really boring place. They have golf," he scoffs. "That place is so small. Everyone's like 'oh, we're gonna do this and that,' and everyone just does drugs. I had to get out of there, because nobody was getting anywhere and nobody cared."In 2011, after a few years of back and forth flirtation, he made the big move to Atlanta where, coincidentally, he roomed with then-unknown, present dubstep dynamo Must Die! The influence of the hustlers around him proved immediately fruitful."He worked every day, like I'm doing now, and I think that was a big influence on me," Phillips says. "It's definitely nice to be around people that are making moves and wanting to go to the next level."The new setting also opened his mind to hybrids of new sounds. After about a year's searching, he struck gold in the underground techno scene. Just as much, while dorming in Gucci Mane's A-town Thug University, the trap influence is unavoidable."The whole rap scene is just kind of crazy, but when you actually live here and ride around the town, you can just feel that vibe," Phillips says. "Even in my neighborhood, you see the stuff that goes on in these rap songs, what these people are talking about, so it's really easy to connect with it."