The Black Sea is a curious place. Bordered by Europe and Asia, it is somewhat isolated, but still nourished by seas and rivers that touch distant lands and times past. Its unique geography causes the water to form two separate layers; the top is full of movement and life, while beneath lies a basin devoid of oxygen, where nothing but the most basic organisms can survive.

On the coast of the Black Sea, in a Russian town called Gelendzhik, lives Kercha — a rising producer, whose new ‘Broken Illusions’ EP reflects all the mysterious complexities of the depths just beyond his doorstep.

Like the sea’s rich surface, each of the EP’s tracks draw from sources separated by vast distances and generational gaps.

Opener ‘Eagle’ looks to the Middle East, its methodical plod accentuated by eerie, sun-baked flutterings — ancient instruments meeting a distinctly digital dubstep pulse. ‘Frozen’ matches oily, oscillating mids with half-heard flashes of jungle; throwing yet another curveball via the thick pops of distinctly electro kicks and snares.

‘Broken Illusions’ itself harks back to turn-of-the-millenium UKG, intricately skipping percussion meeting urgent snatches of clarinet and suspicious sax straight from the neon-lit, rain-slashed streets of some classic noir flick.
Underpinning each track is an obsidian low-end — abyssal subs that, like the hidden expanse at the bottom of the Black Sea, threaten to suffocate all life with their oppressive bass-weight.

These three stone-cold cuts not only showcase Kercha’s irrefutable raw talent, but also mark the first outing from DNO Records, the new label from the brains behind Brighton dubstep institution The Mine. A home for international talents who refuse to be confined by genre or tempo, DNO promises to be a home for rhythms of postmodern realism, and a force to be reckoned with on the dancefloor.