German artist John Eckhardt released The wicked Path under his Fatwires moniker in October of last year.

The LP features nine apocalyptic dub tracks that are anchored by Eckhardt’s raw bass guitar, which is twisted and contorted into speaker-rattling labyrinths of sound. It’s an album of organic, cinematic, and entirely engrossing music made for full immersion, and one we have been coming back to countless times since first discovering its lead track, “Strings Of Dead” via the XLR8R+ submissions portal.

We featured “Strings Of Dread” in our August Submissions Roundup, and we’re now offering it up as an XLR8R download to XLR8R+ subscribers.

Under his birth name, Fatwires, Forresta, and various collaborative projects, Eckhardt has released over 30 recordings that explore low frequencies and the bass guitar’s outer-most reaches. He has also performed internationally, working with, among others, composers Helmut Lachenmann and Pierre Boulez, and artists Elliott Sharp, Peter Evans, and Evan Parker.

“Stings Of Dread” is available as a download below. You can purchase The wicked Path via Eckhardt’s Bandcamp, and stream it via the Bandcamp player below.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the track below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.