STM 180 - Broken English Club

Broken English Club (BEC) is one of the many aliases of Oliver Ho, a London-based DJ and producer known for his prolific and boundary-pushing output in electronic music. Beginning in the '90s with bone-rattling techno for James Ruskin’s Blueprint label, Oliver’s sound has evolved through various monikers like Raudive, Birdland, and Life. What sets his work apart is its subtle infusion of tribal rhythms and jazzy grooves into monolithic techno beats. Industrial and post-punk influences have long been woven into his sonic tapestry, becoming more prominent in his post-2000s projects. With The Eyes in the Heat, he explored minimalist, coldwave soundscapes tinged with Cure-like melancholia, while Broken English Club represented a natural progression into harsher territory. Here, Oliver blends abrasive synth beats, haunting atmospheres, and urban surrealism to create a dystopian vision. The result is a dense, industrialized soundscape, where distorted rhythms, shouted vocals, and cinematic noise converge—a world reminiscent of the dystopian cityscapes found in J.G. Ballard’s writing.

Secret Thirteen Mix 180 captures the raw intensity of BEC, while showcasing unreleased material from Oliver’s label, Death & Leisure. Among the highlights are two new BEC tracks. “Myths of Steel and Concrete” is one of the rawest entries in Oliver’s discography, brimming with high-pitched noise and thumping lo-fi beats, while “Our History in Bones” pushes closer to power electronics, layering distorted spoken word over pulsating sound bursts. The mix also features a track from Oliver’s alias Zov Zov—“Spill”—which sounds like a collision between noise and free jazz, blending chaotic dissonance with improvisational energy. As the mix progresses, the angst-filled, slow-paced synths of Years of Denial give way to an eclectic range of tracks, from the relentless rhythmic assaults of BEC and Samuel Kerridge to the folk-inflected meditations of Demdike Stare and Billy Green. The mix also explores more obscure territory with contributions from the experimental French synth outfit Programme, and the ethereal, hypnotic sounds of Ayshay (now known as Fatima Al Qadiri). Beneath the barrage of electric shards and industrial rhythms, there’s a deeper emotional undercurrent, an atmospheric tension that feels like a fast-paced drive through a concrete jungle that eventually opens into desert landscapes.

This layered mix evokes the industrial landscapes of British painter Jock MacFadyen, particularly his work Turner’s Road, where sparse, fragmented objects obscure vast urban environments. Similarly, Secret Thirteen Mix 180 is filled with distorted, foreground noise, hiding vast spaces of emotional and atmospheric depth that only reveal themselves upon closer inspection.