In security engineering, ’security through obscurity’ refers to the principal means of providing security for a system being the dependance on the secrecy of its design. It’s a tactic often used in computing as a type of encryption, such as hiding source code in plain sight, or an account password in binary files or script. In the latter case, the presumption is that nobody will ever find it. The same way, “maybe if we overshare enough the boundaries of public and private become arbitrary and u gain some new opaqueness”, says Oxhy of loose online crew/label/party Xquisite Nihil, by “releasing too much information or content to hide the meaning that’s embedded in it.”
Oxhy’s mix for aqnb, entitled ‘plant gaze (gloaming tragedy)’ is an appropriate mix of “strung together offcuts of wilted attempts, never really meant to see the day.” In the context of our everyday sharing of private information, as we seek to quench the thirst for fame and a desire to be noticed, the mix is an uncooked collection of ugly truths, comprising crude recordings and course transitions, and at times raunchy; it’s the musical annex in a genealogy of drunk dialling, reality TV, and an unending stream of selfies and photos of family ailments spilling out in nasty detail.
Xquisite Nihil’s recent LEtt-uCe parti!, which featured Spacer Woman (Chooc Ly Tan), RooBoyz Official, IInfested Blandtress, ENGLesia, terribilis, INtentionallycOLd, Ribbon Reseaux, Inverted Terror Axis Korps, GANX and Oxhy themselves, was similarly extravagant, albeit with garden variety motif. And the little voice inside us that cries out for its 15 minutes is echoed by 7minutesofxquisiteheaven —a quick-fire mix series that’s featured the likes of Julia Star, Ornine, 4nge1, Deejay Pariafox and Agatha Valkyrie Ice.
“Xquisite Nihil’s gates are opening,” says Oxhy, perhaps hinting at an emerging transparency. Mixes for Disc Magazine and Akoya Books, an appearance on Shanti’s ‘Broke‘, as well as Oxhy’s own ‘Burning Tories‘ offer a reckless, ‘playing with fire’ approach —especially of the latter, which similarly addressed matters of public vs. private (the video was filmed around Besson Street, London, which despite being in public hands for decades, is planned to be used for a private sector housing scheme.)
But what if the boundaries of public and private are obscured? In determining such disputes, the gravy of oversharing is the murky, opaque dressing of giving away far more information than we should.**
