Shinra Knives drops new music with Tenshi

Coming out of St. Louis, producer Ian Jones, operating under the artistic banner Shinra Knives, views electronic music as something to be dismantled, distorted and rebuilt into unfamiliar shapes. His sound lands at the crossroads of hip hop and experimental dance music, pushing both styles towards an aggressive, glitch-heavy maximalism where fractured drums, overloaded bass and fragmented samples collide without settling into anything at all predictable. Drawing on the lo-fi aesthetics of Memphis rap tapes, the energy of jungle, the sharp edges of drill and the wider appeal of R&B edits, he creates music that feels perpetually on the verge of coming apart.

Within its disorientating surface however, there’s a clear connection to his origins as a scratch DJ and beat digger, with a knack for finding unexpected possibilities in sounds other artists might overlook. That background remains audible in the details that punctuate Shinra Knives’ productions; battle rap bars excavated from obscure YouTube uploads, anime vocal outbursts and microsampled video game sound effects arise from the surrounding noise, giving the music a distinctive vibe assembled from disparate corners of internet culture.

By not treating these elements as decorative furnishings, he folds them into dense, unstable arrangements where every fragment contributes to the sense of controlled chaos, resulting in electronic music that draws on familiar musical histories while taking them towards something more altogether more abstract, His full-length album, You Will Never See Heaven, remains the fullest expression of this approach, serving up a glitch-saturated fever dream that channelled the atmosphere of the Datpiff mixtape era through a constantly shifting collection of sounds.

Since the album’s release, he’s continued developing his sound through a series of EPs for Prague-based label YUKU, while maintaining a frequent collaborative relationship with artist Tenshi. Their partnership produced the 2025 mixtape album Place No Faith In Me, bringing together new and previously unreleased solo tracks alongside joint productions. The project offered a broader picture of their shared creative vision, which have continued to develop through their latest two-track release titled “Phosphorescent Dub / Safe House.”

The new release finds Shinra Knives and Tenshi exploring a more exposed, dubbed-out atmosphere, though the shift is not a departure from their darker tendencies so much as a change in how those tendencies are expressed. Eschewing a reliance on sheer sonic density, both tracks allow tension to develop through restraint, leaving space for the listener to anticipate what might form from the surrounding silence.

“Phosphorescent Dub” begins with a melodic drone that initially suggests a moment of calm but that sense of stability soon dissolves as stuttering percussion enters, transforming the atmosphere into a frantic, beat-driven scene. The progression feels like watching tranquillity give way to panic, with the track’s fragmented rhythms gradually disrupting its opening serenity. It retains the energy associated with Shinra Knives but the atmosphere comes from the feeling that something is slipping out of control as opposed to from aggression alone.

“Safe House” moves at a slower, more brooding pace, where eerie melodic details surface within a heavy, weighted drum pattern and the thick fuzz of hazy instrumental textures. The glitch element is still present but it recedes into the background, allowing dread to become the dominant force as unsettling vocal samples puncture the booming percussive patter and ominous wall of engrossing sound.

With “Phosphorescent Dub / Safe House,” Shinra Knives and Tenshi show that their shared interest in sonic instability extends beyond sheer intensity. By allowing space, atmosphere and anticipation to replace some of their characteristic maximalism, they reveal another dimension to their work, offering a release that feels like an encounter with something quietly unnerving, while showcasing the wildly creative output of their sonic vision.

Listen to Phosphorescent Dub / Safe House below

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