Overthinker Mob find a place for overthought music in 'The Biotech Issue'

The Berlin-based imprint was set up “to anonymously publish the overthought music resting on artists’ hard drives.”

Overthinker Mob describe themselves as a new disruptive force within what they term the “young music bubble” in their base of Berlin. The collective are not content with simply diagnosing some of the myriad problems of the contemporary landscape of cultural production, they intend to try and solve some of these problems as well.

At present, their output takes the form of a newsletter, Thought Cue, which is a periodically published document of reflections on the music scene in Berlin intended to inspire conversation and instigate cultural evolution, and a digital imprint, set up “to anonymously publish the overthought music resting on artists’ hard drives”.

Previous instalments of Thought Cue have included a contemplation of the trajectory of the music scene in a post-COVID world, as well as incisive critiques of the structural racism inherent within Berlin’s creative scene from Overthinker Mob’s founder, Hubert Spangler, aka Bloomfeld.

For the label, Overthinker Mob are taking a fresh approach. Rejecting conventional formats for releasing music, the collective have shared ‘The Biotech Issue’, an audiovisual moodboard featuring music from a group of producers, listed alphabetically to ensure their musical anonymity, including Diessa, Eno Gata, Mordio, Niklas Bühler, Polygonia and Porter Brook. It marks the first in “an open-ended series scraping the spectrum for innovative pieces that the artists wouldn’t have made public otherwise.” 

“It’s 2020 by now and about time to invest in a format that eases the listener’s compulsion to assign the music to a genre”, explain Overthinker Mob. “The resulting lack of expectations enhances the listening experience to be an exploration as opposed to flattening the learning curve.”

The 10-minute CGI epic that accompanies the release was directed by Bloomfeld, and features all six tracks, which are available to stream and download now on Bandcamp. For more information about Overthinker Mob and to read past and future instalments of Thought Cue, head over to their website.

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