- 1000names are a Bulgarian hip-hop duo, and their sound is about as quirky and unpredictable as you would expect from that description. The only thing that has characterized their work thus far—for labels like Black Acre and Svetlana Industries—is a loose and sample-heavy swagger that sounded like it was falling apart as it played. It made for a rather disorienting and confusing listening experience (sometimes bordering on frustrating), but their latest for Svetlana sees them tighten up their sound with a house-inspired linearity and a synth-drenched makeover.
Opener "La Boheme"'s foreground is taken up by a relatively straightforward thump and bleepy arpeggios are shoved to the peripheries of the stereo spectrum, making for something that still sounds a little disorienting but is easier to follow nonetheless. The beats here are somewhere between garage and hip-hop, with a militant sort of swing that's decisive even when it sounds like it can't make up its mind ("Planet Video"), and they make an overture towards Brainfeeder-friendly nostalgia with the Muzak-referencing "First Postcard from Tokyo." The group's best is their most aggressive, however: "Machine City" sounds like toy-industrial music, all slamming piston drums, dread-inducing melodies and eerie synths. With this muscular new backbone the group's music has more substance than ever, taking a turn for the accessible without sacrificing too much of their inherent psychedelia.
Tracklist X1 La Boheme
X2 Zelda
X3 Planet Video
Y1 Machine City
Y2 First Postcard From Tokyo