rkss

As an artist and musician, rkss (Robin Buckley) takes a critical approach to music with their experimental productions, using sound as a series of gestures to explore complex socio-political issues by working with and pushing against social contexts.

rkss' live sets fuse unpredictable, divergent rhythms with radical synthesis techniques to reimagine and explore speculative futures, creating space for different ways of being. Their releases Brostep in the Style of Florian Hecker and DJ Tools (UIQ) - named one of Pitchfork’s experimental albums of the year - resist categorisation while questioning established hierarchies within electronic music.

Their high energy DJ sets shift between 160 - 200 BPM and are known to include anything from trap, gabber and techno through to musique concrete, hardcore and obscure jersey club edits - often blending three or more of these elements.

Robin has performed on line-ups with LYZZA, House of Kenzo, Cõvco, Lee Gamble, Juliana Huxtable and ZULI, with recent live performances at the ICA, Mutek Montréal, Stroom Den Haag, Sonic Acts, Mutek Argentina, Café OTO, Schiev Festival and LUFF Festival; DJ performances at Somerset House and FOLD in London, Berlin’s Volksbühne, Moldrovina in Milan and La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris.

As a theorist, Robin has delivered lectures on their ideas about the political and social contexts of music at the Tate, Goldsmiths College, University of London and as part of the New Contemporaries at the South London Gallery. As a visiting lecturer they have delivered lectures and seminars as part of the BA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins and they have contributed to the International Computer Music Association’s journal ARRAY.

Robin’s work has been featured in The Wire, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, FACT and DJ Mag, among others. In 2019 they were resident on Rinse FM and they have contributed mixes to Resonance FM and NTS.

They recently completed a month-long residency at Wysing Arts Centre and they are currently focused on developing new work and expanding their practice.