Premiere: DJ Pacifier ‘Turboworld’

Montreal's DJ Pacifier will self-release a new EP, ‘Planet Pacifier’, next month. Listen to ‘Turboworld’ below.

After high-octane releases on labels including Club Cringe, GutterRing, and Failed Units, the producer and DJ reaches back into their toybox of tricks for a playful new concept EP. With each of the five cuts inspired by one of their beloved stuffed animals – Bunny, Bunky the Monkey, Sloth, Dino, and Octopus – the project is joyfully and self-referentially silly in a way that is only intensified by the flavours of freaky breakcore, hardcore, and pogo-ing hyperpop that surface sporadically throughout.

Opener 'Turboworld' is "inspired by Dino - an old-skool raver from lost lands,” DJ Pacifier explains. “The tune is a rave DJ's secret-weapon, pulling the most fun elements from early hardcore breaks, including big hoovers, super fast piano playing, and ecstatic vocals.”

Elsewhere on the EP, harking back to the video game aesthetics of 2020’s ‘Research and Rescue Pt.1’, ‘Xenarthra’ feels like a final boss battle theme with pitch-shifted synths and a quickening beat that steadily swells into a cartoonish wall of noise, while ‘Infinity x Infinity’ leans back into the shiny, cutesy aesthetics where DJ Pacifier earned their name.

Penultimate cut ‘Jiggle’ is suitably berserk, as one might expect from a serenade to a plush monkey, and sounds like MacDonald can’t resist twisting all the knobs. However, the EP's minimalist closer, ‘Bunny Bounce’, serves as a reminder that nothing DJ Pacifier does is left to chance.

2023 might be seminal hyperpop imprint PC Music’s final year of new releases, but with artists like DJ Pacifier on the loose, the eccentric genre is far from down and out.

‘Planet Pacifier’ will be released on 25th July. Pre-order it here.