Kill Alters' 'We Can Rot Together' Turns Rave Wreckage into Something Exhilarating
Bonnie Baxter is Kill Alters, and We Can Rot Together is her third album for the Chicago label Hausu Mountain. She composed it, produced it, sang it and played every hardware and software instrument on it; Nicos Kennedy mixed and mastered. The remarkable production fact is that Baxter builds these tracks primarily in Patterning, an iOS drum-machine app — seventeen tracks of genuinely punishing digital hardcore, sequenced on a phone. Bandcamp Daily’s Liz Ohanesian named it Album of the Day and led with the verdict: “We Can Rot Together is exhilarating.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Acid basslines and saw-wave synths doing structural work, not decoration. Because the sequencing happens in a drum-machine environment, the bass is programmed percussively — it articulates on the grid rather than sustaining through it, so the low end reads as rhythm first and pitch second. Kennedy’s master leaves it clipped and bright.
The Spatial Dynamics: Ohanesian identified the structural trick exactly: “that approach results in an album that feels as much like a DJ set as it does like a collection of songs.” Tracks run into each other, tempos hand off, and the stereo field stays deliberately crowded. There is no air in this mix, and that is the point.
Standout Performance
Baxter’s own archive. The album threads in archival recordings of her childhood and of her mother, and setting that material against Y2K rave electronics is what lifts the record above pastiche — Ohanesian’s read is that “Baxter chose to make something thrilling out of it,” which is the most accurate thing you can say about turning your own history into dance music.
Why It’s Certified
⚡ “CASTLES IN THE SKY” is a cover of the Ian Van Dahl trance anthem, and it is played straight enough to hurt.
🌈 “TOY SOLDIERS 1993” takes the Martika song on as karaoke and wins.
⚡ “ON THE FLOOR,” “OCCAM’S RAZOR” and “DOUBLE-SLIT” all got out as advance singles; in sequence they’re better.
Available on a red C50 cassette with black imprints, if you want the object. Certified great.