DJ Eprom’s We Are the Biobots is turntablism as sci-fi cinema, a fully wired concept record about “digitized” humans made with nothing but human hands. Rooted in Hip Hop but leaning hard into electro and techno, the album plays like a broadcast from a bunker somewhere between 1984 and a future where everything runs on code. Cuts were built in the analog realm—MPC3000, SP1200, Amiga 1200—with the explicit promise that no AI touched the process. The “Only Biobots Were Used” disclaimer is not a gimmick; it is the core idea.
The title track, composed 838 meters below sea level in a Silesian coal mine where Eprom once worked, sets the tone with grinding industrial textures and robotic rhythms that still swing. That setting links directly to his own story: DJ Eprom (Michał Baj) is a Polish Hip Hop pioneer, a two-time IDA World Champion scratch DJ, and a respected producer/engineer whose fingerprints are all over the regional scene. Years of competition-level turntablism and studio work feed into this record’s precision—nothing here sounds accidental, even when the cuts feel frantic and loose. His experience pulling together international scratch events and collaborations makes it believable that he can assemble this kind of global “scratch Avengers” lineup and actually give everyone a meaningful role.
From there, We Are the Biobots becomes a guided tour of that extended family. D-Styles and Prime Cuts tear through “Skratching Terminators,” trading phrases like battle vets who still enjoy the sport. “#coffeecuts” with DJ Ben, DJ Krótki, and Pan Jaras moves like a morning session that got out of hand, caffeine jitters translated into fader chops and orbit patterns. “Electrode” and “Priority” push things into high-voltage territory, with DJ Flip Flop, DJ Prolifix, TigerStyle, and DJ IQ riding sleek, chrome-coated loops that would feel at home in an ’80s sci-fi anime scored by a Hip Hop head.
“Supersonics” with DJ Melo D nods to the Beat Junkies school of precision without turning into pure nostalgia, and “Jam of a Borg” with Daniel Druz leans harder into electro body music, all forward momentum and machine funk. “Cybots Patrol” pulls Miyajima, Ken-One, and Pan Jaras into a patrol-unit formation: siren-like leads, strict drums, and cuts that sound like radio chatter between cyborg cops. “Digital Human” cools the tempo but not the tension, while closer “8 Bit Overheat” with Mr. Krime wraps the concept in arcade smoke and glitching circuits.
What makes We Are the Biobots hit is how physical it sounds. Faders click, vinyl breathes, and every transform, flare, and crab scratch feels like a small act of resistance against the frictionless, quantized present. You can hear the discipline of a world-champion battle DJ and the ear of a seasoned engineer in how dense the arrangements are without turning muddy; this is the work of someone who has spent decades living inside both the booth and the studio rack. The thematic throughline—human hands interrogating machine futures—never needs a single bar of rapping to land.
This is not background “lo-fi beats,” and not a dusty nostalgia trip either; it is a fully realized instrumental Hip Hop record that treats the turntable as lead instrument and narrative device. Normally instrumental projects do not make the cut for our best-of-the-year list, but this one demands an exception. For old-school Hip Hop heads who lived through the electro era, and for listeners who found those 808-driven classics later and grew attached, this album is gold. We Are the Biobots is a high-concept, deeply human reminder that in an era of plug-ins and prompts, the most dangerous machines in Hip Hop are still the ones with hands attached.
Download DJ Eprom – We Are The Biobots
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