UNFIX
CHAINED RHYTHM
QRAUS
No one could tell me how long I’d have to stay there. Gradually, the outlines of reality began to blur. The idea of being separated from music had once been unthinkable. But even that thought—was it truly mine? Or just something I was programmed to believe? A few weeks. That was all the time I had. The world felt frozen, yet the countdown kept ticking. There was no space left for obsessing over sound quality or technical precision. All I had were the MPC and the Octatrack— Or something… speaking through them. Maybe it was me. Maybe not. And then, this album… it just existed. It wasn’t made with intention. If anything, I was made by it. A fragment of memory, or perhaps a glitch in perception. And now, it’s being inserted into your brain. Let’s see what you remember.
CHAINED RHYTHM
QRAUS
No one could tell me how long I’d have to stay there. Gradually, the outlines of reality began to blur. The idea of being separated from music had once been unthinkable. But even that thought—was it truly mine? Or just something I was programmed to believe? A few weeks. That was all the time I had. The world felt frozen, yet the countdown kept ticking. There was no space left for obsessing over sound quality or technical precision. All I had were the MPC and the Octatrack— Or something… speaking through them. Maybe it was me. Maybe not. And then, this album… it just existed. It wasn’t made with intention. If anything, I was made by it. A fragment of memory, or perhaps a glitch in perception. And now, it’s being inserted into your brain. Let’s see what you remember.
TRACE
QRAUS
Although the pandemic has not truly ended, this work was born during the heavily disrupted years of 2020-2021, when cities became ghost towns under lockdown. While many sought escape in secret mountain festivals and underground raves, this album was created in a sealed room deep within Nagoya's business district-thick with the scent of ammonium, the walls lined with machines humming like synthetic memories. As with the previous release, no computers were used. The tracks were assembled using only samplers, synthesizers, effect units, and drum machines, with the entire process-from recording to final mixdown-carried out on an MTR. Time, in this room, moved differently. The artist describes the style as electro hip-hop. Funk-laced delay effects and glacial loops blending analog circuitry with digital decay conjure a world both melancholic and detached-an echo of Qraus's fractured inner reality, where signals blur and identities flicker. This is an instrumental collection.
