Utility, by Barker

Utility

by Barker

supported by

josh epps "Gradients of Bliss" is a perfect description of my listening experience with these songs. Favorite track: Hedonic Treadmill.

bwv999 This album always puts me in a great state of mind. Favorite track: Gradients Of Bliss.

daniel_danieli dub for love! 💙💚💙
Favorite track: Models Of Wellbeing.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€10 EUR or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
1. Paradise Engineering
2. Posmean
3. Experience Machines
4. Gradients Of Bliss
5. Hedonic Treadmill
6. Models Of Wellbeing
7. Utility
8. Wireheading
9. Die-Hards Of The Darwinian Order

Includes unlimited streaming of Utility via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

Purchasable with gift card

€15 EUR or more
LP | ostgutlp32
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A1. Paradise Engineering
A2. Posmean
A3. Experience Machines
B1. Gradients Of Bliss
B2. Hedonic Treadmill
C1. Models Of Wellbeing
C2. Utility
D1. Wireheading
D2. Die-Hards Of The Darwinian Order

Includes unlimited streaming of Utility via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	Paradise Engineering 04:08	buy track
2.	Posmean 03:54	buy track
3.	Experience Machines 03:39	buy track
4.	Gradients Of Bliss 05:28	buy track
5.	Hedonic Treadmill 04:09	buy track
6.	Models Of Wellbeing 06:03	buy track
7.	Utility 04:30	buy track
8.	Wireheading 02:19	buy track
9.	Die-Hards Of The Darwinian Order 09:07	buy track

about

“We all dance away our lives to the tune of the sovereign pleasure-pain axis.”

– David Pearce, The Hedonistic Imperative

Pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance as a rave metaphor fits the music of Sam Barker. The Berghain resident and Leisure System co-founder has spent the last few years exploring the euphoric potential of altering key variables in dance music formulas.

This was especially true on his 2018 Ostgut Ton debut EP ‘Debiasing’, which was flush with unconventional rhythmic chord stabs, melody and percussion but devoid of kickdrums.

Now, on his debut solo LP ‘Utility’, he turns his focus toward melding experimentation and dancefloor pragmatism with the psychology behind the musical decision making process. ‘Utility’ is a playful but non-ironic musical approach to a whole spectrum of utilitarian and transhumanist ideas: from models for quantifying pleasure and “gradients of bliss” to abolishing suffering for sentient beings (not just people) through the ethical use of drugs and nanotechnology.

Over nine tracks his vision ebbs and flows through waves of deeply psychedelic musical vignettes; free-floating and futuristic melodies and rhythms as targeted brain stimulation. The sound draws heavily on modular synthesis, as well as self-built mechanical instruments and plate reverbs to create atmospheres that are at once alien and emotionally recognizable, functional and utopian.

credits

released September 6, 2019

all tracks written and produced by Sam Barker

license

about

Barker Berlin, Germany

shows

Aug 27

The Musician Pub

Leicester, UK
Sep 16

Doel Festival

Antwerp, Belgium

discography

BARKER002

May 2021
Utility

Sep 2019
BARKER001

Jun 2019
Debiasing

Jun 2018

contact / help

Contact Barker

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