Taiwanese electronic maverick Oberka has never been one to play it safe, and on Regrow Protocol, he fully leans into the edge. The 10-track album, released via his own Dark Paradise Records, is an uncompromising sonic journey where techno, glitch, gamelan, and guttural vocal chops collide in a chaotic rebirth of electronic form. It’s dense, daring, and wholly his own.
The centrepiece and title track, “Regrow Protocol,” is a fever-dream anthem that fuses chopped pig oinks, balafon loops, and warped vocal glitches into something that sounds like the breakdown of a supercomputer mid-exorcism. And yet, it grooves. It pulses with the strange magnetism that defines all of Oberka’s work: a wild storm harnessed just long enough to become danceable.
But the album is more than just noise for noise’s sake. From the twitchy aggression of “Frog” to the elegiac tones of “Please Remember,” Oberka uses fragmentation as a narrative device. This isn’t just a collection of tracks—it’s an ecosystem. Each song represents a mutation, a layer of decay, a sudden sprout of rebirth. There’s entropy and elegance in equal measure.
Born Huang Shao Yong, Oberka has established himself as a force in the Asian underground, not only as a producer but as a label head, collaborator, and curator of sonic rebellion. He’s as likely to be producing for Mandarin-language artists as he is performing an improvisational set from a Hong Kong hotel room (where, incidentally, “Regrow Protocol” began).
What makes this project stand out is its conceptual depth. Built over nearly a year, much of the album was formed from longform demos and raw live sessions—preserved not for perfection, but for emotion. The result feels less like a linear listening experience and more like crawling through the tangled circuitry of Oberka’s brain.
Regrow Protocol doesn’t offer easy catharsis, but it does offer transformation. It demands attention, invites disorientation, and rewards surrender. In a world of formulaic playlists and algorithmic sameness, Oberka’s refusal to conform is not just refreshing, it’s vital.
