HydraTek’s ‘BioPunk’ Breaks Techno Rules with AI Voices and Cyberpunk Power
- Undrtone Blog
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
HydraTek’s new track isn’t here to blend in. ‘BioPunk’, released recently via Don’t Play This at Home, is a full-frontal sonic assault that fuses industrial techno, electro breaks and DnB momentum into something dark, mechanical and alive. This is a track that demands your full attention.
It opens with glitch textures and distorted stabs that grind like faulty circuits. Then comes the vocal hook - cold, AI-generated, stripped to just six words: “Feel the power. Enter. Be.” It doesn’t ask. It commands.
HydraTek calls this approach “sonic architecture”, and it shows. “I aim to build immersive, functional spaces where every sound plays a role,” he says. But ‘BioPunk’ wasn’t planned in the usual way. It started with a plugin.
“I got Transit 2 from Baby Audio to beta-test. I was asked to make some factory presets and a short demo. That became the core of ‘BioPunk’. It was originally under two minutes, then I decided to expand it into a full-length track.”
Despite the chaos on the surface, there’s clarity underneath. “Even if the core elements were just a few, I used a bunch of Transit 2 instances to keep them alive and evolving. Everything moves through automation. That’s how I controlled the energy without losing focus.”
The vocals, one of the most striking elements of the track, were sourced from sample packs. But it wasn’t just about finding the right words. It was about tone. “I liked that they sounded sexy and cold at the same time. Not quite human. Not quite machine. That uncanny valley feel was exactly what I wanted.”
HydraTek isn’t afraid to break structure either. “Some of my tracks are more club-focused. Some are more experimental, like ‘BioPunk’. But it always starts with sound selection. I pick sounds that express something, not just because they’re cool.”
Even the bass has a story. “I’m obsessed with low-end design. I wrote a thesis on it during sound engineering school. For this track, I layered the kick and sculpted it with envelope control. Then I saturated the bass and used LFO modulation instead of classic sidechain compression. Towards the end, I sped up the modulation rate to add more momentum.”
The result is a low-end that feels massive but controlled. Physical, but not muddy. And somehow, it doesn’t crowd the mix. “This might be the most minimalistic track I’ve made. Kick, bass, drum breaks, vocals, and synth stabs. That’s it. Power comes from subtraction.”
HydraTek’s approach to mixing is based on clarity. He recently received a track to mix that had 75 different layers. “The client wanted it loud and punchy, but it was overloaded. Sometimes you need to remove sounds so others can shine.”
His influences give more clues to his thinking. “Skrillex and Noisia have always been big for me. Sharp design. Technical depth. I also love Tale Of Us - especially Anyma and MRAK - for their emotional storytelling inside hard club tracks.”
Looking ahead, he’s got more experiments in mind. “I want to take more risks. I’ve been thinking about a concept album for a while. That’s starting to take shape. It’s about going deeper. Fewer rules. More exploration.”
With ‘BioPunk’, he’s already there. It’s not just a techno track. It’s a cybernetic signal. Controlled chaos. Designed friction.
If you want techno that hits as hard as it thinks, this is it. HydraTek isn’t following a formula. He’s building a new one.
HydraTek
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