Phantom Pulse 2: Hemant SK, Ruhail Qaisar, FHM, Cairodusk
Advertisement
This July, Phantom Pulse returns with another descent into the sonic abyss: four artists pushing the limits of noise, rhythm, and atmosphere in a ritual of raw frequency.
HEMANT SK
Power electronics/noise – Bangalore
Hemant Sreekumar is an experimental sound artist who works with notions of psychoacoustics to compose mind-altering sonic content. Working with custom software, he composes using atonal frequencies, infrasonic pulses, and modulated interference—structures that breach cognitive thresholds.
With performances that explore themes of decay, emergence and the loss of meaning in a world run by algorithms, his newer compositions deal with the retardation of AI systems that gain sentience and autonomy, where signal degradation becomes a form of language and resistance.
Despite his experimental approach to sound, Sk's compositions remain accessible, drawing in audiences with their intricacy and complexity. Devoid of any strict genre boundaries, his compositions span the range of ritual ambient, drone, dub, fantasy, minimalism and power noise, staging the psycho-technical collapse of the familiar.
FFO: Hijokaidan, Merzbow, Whitehouse
_
RUHAIL QAISAR
Death industrial/power electronics/noise from Ladakh
Ruhail's current practice revolves around examining threads of local memory, mythos, and poetics through sound art, compositions, and found sculptures. Involved within various cross-genre projects since 2015, his early noise shows all over India are recalled as sonic palate-cleansers, he debuted with his concept album “Fatima” (2023) dubbed by The Quietus as “haunting”, released on Danse Noire featuring stalwarts like Dis Fig and Elvin Brandhi, with a 48-page photo book publication.
The commissioned hymnal piece for Les Urbaines, written in collaboration with Gottfrid Ahman and Michael Anklin, “Three Hymns of Cruelty” (2022)—which delved into the dynamics of Ladakhi procession music—was performed at Arsenic in Lausanne, Switzerland. His found-footage VHS short film Cenacle 97-98 (2022) was screened at the Zurich Kunsthalle, La Becque, and Gessnerallee Zurich for Parasite O Sinensis.
His latest work, “Gods Erupt Like Tumours”, is a series of found sculptures and a monophonic sound installation on view at the Salts Gallery in Birsfelden, Basel, Switzerland. He recently finished his residency in Graz, Austria, preparing a 36-channel third-order ambisonic composition, “Namkhay Rtsima / The Spine of the Sky,” for the Musikprotokoll Festival for ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk) and the Steirischer Herbst’ 24 at the Dom im Berg.
Ruhail has previously been part of Delhi-based death metal bands Bonefvcker and Vajravarah.
For fans of: Aube, Masonna, SPK
_
FORMIDABLE HATE MACHINE
Industrial metal – Bangalore
Formidable Hate Machine is India’s first original industrial metal act—a two-piece project built on minimal, abstract ideas and a refusal to follow familiar paths. Their sound draws from a wide spectrum of influences: from '80s new wave, industrial, post-punk, to doom metal, ambient, and avant-garde. Just as shaped by news cycles, social media static, and television detritus as by music itself, FHM constructs tense, mechanical soundscapes where repetition becomes hypnosis and disruption becomes release.
For fans of: Godflesh, Ministry, Pitchshifter, Skin Chamber
_
CAIRODUSK
Dark ambient/electronic – Bangalore
Cairodusk conjures meditative dread through slow-moving waves of drone, shadow, decay, and ecstasy.
Originally conceived as a minimalist ambient project rooted in stillness, the sound has since turned inward, becoming heavier, darker, and more ritualistic. For Phantom Pulse, Cairodusk presents a special dark ambient set that channels the abyssal atmospheres of Lustmord and Coil, fused with the spatial drift of Brian Eno and the analogue gravity of Eliane Radigue. This expansive sonic journey will also feature raw, acid electronic intrusions inspired by the squelching lexicon of the TB-303 and pioneers like Hardfloor, Plastikman, and Aphex Twin.
Cairodusk's set promises to be a descent into quiet tension, sonic entropy, vast cosmic solitude, and an acid electronic groove-inspired drift and movement.
For fans of: Lustmord, Endure, Aphex Twin, and minimal acid
_
⚠️ Enter at your own risk.
📍 By Chance, Brigade Road, Bangalore
📅 7:00 PM, July 19, 2025
🎟️ Tickets at ₹499: https://sklbx.com/Br7L940F
_
Poster by Kaushal LS
A cover of 500 INR will be charged per ticket at the venue, which is fully redeemable on food and beverages.
Get Tickets
HEMANT SK
Power electronics/noise – Bangalore
Hemant Sreekumar is an experimental sound artist who works with notions of psychoacoustics to compose mind-altering sonic content. Working with custom software, he composes using atonal frequencies, infrasonic pulses, and modulated interference—structures that breach cognitive thresholds.
With performances that explore themes of decay, emergence and the loss of meaning in a world run by algorithms, his newer compositions deal with the retardation of AI systems that gain sentience and autonomy, where signal degradation becomes a form of language and resistance.
Despite his experimental approach to sound, Sk's compositions remain accessible, drawing in audiences with their intricacy and complexity. Devoid of any strict genre boundaries, his compositions span the range of ritual ambient, drone, dub, fantasy, minimalism and power noise, staging the psycho-technical collapse of the familiar.
FFO: Hijokaidan, Merzbow, Whitehouse
_
RUHAIL QAISAR
Death industrial/power electronics/noise from Ladakh
Ruhail's current practice revolves around examining threads of local memory, mythos, and poetics through sound art, compositions, and found sculptures. Involved within various cross-genre projects since 2015, his early noise shows all over India are recalled as sonic palate-cleansers, he debuted with his concept album “Fatima” (2023) dubbed by The Quietus as “haunting”, released on Danse Noire featuring stalwarts like Dis Fig and Elvin Brandhi, with a 48-page photo book publication.
The commissioned hymnal piece for Les Urbaines, written in collaboration with Gottfrid Ahman and Michael Anklin, “Three Hymns of Cruelty” (2022)—which delved into the dynamics of Ladakhi procession music—was performed at Arsenic in Lausanne, Switzerland. His found-footage VHS short film Cenacle 97-98 (2022) was screened at the Zurich Kunsthalle, La Becque, and Gessnerallee Zurich for Parasite O Sinensis.
His latest work, “Gods Erupt Like Tumours”, is a series of found sculptures and a monophonic sound installation on view at the Salts Gallery in Birsfelden, Basel, Switzerland. He recently finished his residency in Graz, Austria, preparing a 36-channel third-order ambisonic composition, “Namkhay Rtsima / The Spine of the Sky,” for the Musikprotokoll Festival for ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk) and the Steirischer Herbst’ 24 at the Dom im Berg.
Ruhail has previously been part of Delhi-based death metal bands Bonefvcker and Vajravarah.
For fans of: Aube, Masonna, SPK
_
FORMIDABLE HATE MACHINE
Industrial metal – Bangalore
Formidable Hate Machine is India’s first original industrial metal act—a two-piece project built on minimal, abstract ideas and a refusal to follow familiar paths. Their sound draws from a wide spectrum of influences: from '80s new wave, industrial, post-punk, to doom metal, ambient, and avant-garde. Just as shaped by news cycles, social media static, and television detritus as by music itself, FHM constructs tense, mechanical soundscapes where repetition becomes hypnosis and disruption becomes release.
For fans of: Godflesh, Ministry, Pitchshifter, Skin Chamber
_
CAIRODUSK
Dark ambient/electronic – Bangalore
Cairodusk conjures meditative dread through slow-moving waves of drone, shadow, decay, and ecstasy.
Originally conceived as a minimalist ambient project rooted in stillness, the sound has since turned inward, becoming heavier, darker, and more ritualistic. For Phantom Pulse, Cairodusk presents a special dark ambient set that channels the abyssal atmospheres of Lustmord and Coil, fused with the spatial drift of Brian Eno and the analogue gravity of Eliane Radigue. This expansive sonic journey will also feature raw, acid electronic intrusions inspired by the squelching lexicon of the TB-303 and pioneers like Hardfloor, Plastikman, and Aphex Twin.
Cairodusk's set promises to be a descent into quiet tension, sonic entropy, vast cosmic solitude, and an acid electronic groove-inspired drift and movement.
For fans of: Lustmord, Endure, Aphex Twin, and minimal acid
_
⚠️ Enter at your own risk.
📍 By Chance, Brigade Road, Bangalore
📅 7:00 PM, July 19, 2025
🎟️ Tickets at ₹499: https://sklbx.com/Br7L940F
_
Poster by Kaushal LS
A cover of 500 INR will be charged per ticket at the venue, which is fully redeemable on food and beverages.
Get Tickets
Advertisement