Bay Area producer Kush Arora aka Only Now shares the first single from 'Black Wind / Merciless Destiny', an unfiltered flex that invokes razor-sharp rhythms, deep space isolationist electronics and sound system pressure.

Drawn together with quick, intuitive facility, the six tracks that feature represent a lustrous, pitch-black confrontation, moving through mythic siren song, industrial dancehall, spatial sequencing experiments, and ruminative inflections on 90s era metal.

Across the course of just over twenty minutes, Arora lays out an unremitting, panoramic nightfall of sound, echoing the protean kinetics of kuduro & Gqom – often found in previous work – whilst channelling the heavy storm cloud menace of drone and metal nostalgia. Amongst it all, there are moments of disarming release, with ‘unclassical’ strings adding unexpected counterpoint to the myriad accelerations and cavernous zones found throughout 'Black Wind / Merciless Destiny'.

Completed during the lockdown period, the record’s intoxicating sense of tension and collapse reflects Arora’s personal response to the Coronavirus crisis and to the global protests, chronicling the escalating pressure and unease of this period but also symbolizing a purgative and powerful creative emission.

‘Black Wind / Merciless Destiny’ is a free, pay what you want release available via the Only Now Bandcamp page, with all proceeds donated to civil rights causes and organizations in the Bay Area. Previous donations were provided to the Bay Area Anti- Repression Committee Bail Fund.

Head into the void, once again, with Only Now.

Reviews:
Support from NTS Radio Trevor Jackson,
The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music Nov 2020
" Two drops from Only Now aka Kush Arora in the span of a couple of months, one self-released in support of civil rights organisations during this significant period of crisis and social upheaval, particularly in the US; the other recorded in 2019 with fellow Bay Area producer Lukas Patzek’s Orogen project. Both releases are informed by metal, ambient and dance music, but each responds to a significantly different social context – one cultural, the other metaphysical. The Black Wind/Merciless Destiny solo project breaks down and disassembles the sonic elements of a band set-up. There’s a warbling, filtered guitar chord here, a muted drum assault there; all are drenched in drone distortion. The Avuls collaboration with Orogen, meanwhile, expands these sonic elements within slow-build compositions that overwhelm to an ungraspable cosmic degree."