Attrition by Slikback

Slikback Attrition

90
ChoruScore
2 reviews
Jul 18, 2025
Release Date
Planet Mu
Label

Slikback's Attrition arrives as a precise, uncompromising statement of extreme club music, where collapse and experimentalism are engineered into dancefloor impact. Critics point to the record's cinematic narrative and production precision as defining features, and across professional reviews the consensus registers as overwhelmingly positive. With a 90/100 consensus score from 2 professional reviews, Attrition stakes a claim as an essential, if challenging, listen for fans of genre mashup and intense, design-led electronic music.

Reviewers consistently praise standout tracks that crystallize the album's aesthetic: “Sekli” and “Duality” are cited for their collage-like precision and unfolding logic, while “Semblance Of Composure”, “Snow” and “Knot” emerge as the best songs on Attrition for their atmospheric weight and impact. Critic narratives emphasize interruptions, magpie mashups, dubstep-inflected LFOs and sudden 160bpm curveballs - elements that make the collection feel cinematic and claustrophobic rather than conventionally melodic. Reviewers note that the album measures success by intensity and design rather than hooks.

While praise dominates, the tone is exacting: some critics highlight the record's deliberate austerity and its prioritization of atmosphere over accessibility, framing Attrition as a return to experimental rigor rather than mainstream concession. The critical consensus suggests that those curious whether Attrition is worth listening to will find a finely wrought, high-impact work that advances Slikback's practice of extreme club experimentation. Read on for full reviews that unpack how these best tracks propel the album's cinematic, collapsing soundworld.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

Snow

1 mention

"01. Snow"
Resident Advisor
2

Knot

1 mention

"02. Knot"
Resident Advisor
3

Sekli

2 mentions

"Listen to: Sekli, Duality, Semblance of Composure"
The Skinny
01. Snow
R
Resident Advisor
about "Snow"
Read full review
1 mention
85% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

Snow

1 mention
100
02:36
2

Knot

1 mention
86
03:03
3

Sekli

2 mentions
89
03:14
4

Guerrilla

1 mention
43
03:53
5

Duality

2 mentions
71
05:17
6

Semblance Of Composure

2 mentions
71
02:49
7

Taped

2 mentions
60
04:01
8

Trars

1 mention
14
03:15
9

Sheltered

1 mention
03:30
10

Spend

1 mention
05:13
11

Fracture

1 mention
05:14

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album

Critic's Take

Slikback’s Attrition feels like an immaculate vision of dancefloor otherness, a record where interruptions and temporary rhythms become a ghastly but irresistible whole. The reviewer points to tracks such as “Sekli”, “Duality” and “Semblance Of Composure” as listen-to highlights, each embodying that collage-like precision and cinematic narrative. There is a relentless, evolving logic here - dubstep-inflected LFOs, magpie mashups, and 160bpm curveballs like “Taped” all proving why these are the best tracks on Attrition.

Key Points

  • The best song(s) stand out because they crystallize Slikback's collage-like precision and cinematic, dancefloor-ready production.
  • The album's core strength is immaculate production that fuses Gqom, dubstep LFOs and experimental textures into a cohesive, evolving whole.

Themes

dancefloor experimentation genre mashup cinematic narrative production precision

Critic's Take

Slikback traffics in an urgent, claustrophobic club sound on Attrition, and the review singles out tracks like “Snow” and “Knot” as crystalline examples of that aesthetic. Zach Tippitt writes in concise, declarative bursts that emphasise how these pieces paint a world on the verge of collapse, so the best songs on Attrition are those that push the album's extreme textures forward. The writing prizes atmosphere and impact over melody, which is why “Snow” lands as a standout and “Knot” follows close behind. This is an album whose best tracks are measured by intensity and design rather than conventional hooks.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Snow", is best because it epitomises the album's urgent, collapsing-club atmosphere.
  • The album's core strength is its consistent, experimental extreme-club textures that evoke a world on the verge of collapse.

Themes

extreme club music collapse experimentalism