Kusp arrived on Lynx’s Detail Recordings with an unusually open brief: make an album and let the music go where it wanted. The result, Arashi, appeared in 2018, bringing orchestral jungle, deeper productions and halftime into a debut that resisted settling on one sound.
The connection began while Kusp was studying in Portsmouth. A housemate passed his music to a local promoter, who sent it on to Lynx. After hearing the tracks and seeing him play, Lynx asked for more; a tune called Hood helped turn the conversation from possible singles into an album.
Kusp had already released on Context Audio and Authentic Music before Moments and Shook introduced him to Detail listeners. His earlier musical interests included guitar, punk and hip-hop, and he began producing in 2012. That mixed background suited the freedom Lynx offered, with different writing sessions taking him towards different styles.
On Through The Rough, MC Kemo joined an expansive orchestral jungle production that took considerable work to finish. Ritual, with Rider Shafique, changed even near the mastering deadline, gaining rolling breaks after an earlier ambient halftime arrangement. Those decisions make the album an especially useful starting point: its variety comes from the writing itself, rather than a checklist of styles.
