Knowing Looks - Listen To My 45

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  • Toronto-based Knowing Looks' debut last year on West Norwood Cassette Library seemed to fit right into the label's affected house/garage aesthetic. The raucous and uplifting "Listen To My 45," though, doesn't even have a kick drum. Instead, Jason Hopfner wrings the most he can out of a very recognizable sample: the titular refrain repeats ad nauseum, sliced and diced with microscopic variation until the words start to blur—think Kassem Mosse's last go on Workshop, only more funny than unsettling. Hopfner isn't sampling an a cappella, however, and so as he digs deeper into his source material we're bombarded with all sorts of submerged compression artefacts and weird processing glitches, the powdery thud of the sample providing a rhythmic foundation. As he wraps further and further layers—and sirens and other cheeky sound effects—it's remarkable how in control he sounds amidst all this chaos. Flipside "Ghost Baby" lacks some of the boundless enthusiasm of the A-side. It's a skronky, break-driven house jam where it feels like the drums are mischievously hopping off the rhythm. A busy mess of samples of varying fidelity again make up the track, creating what sounds like an absolutely paranoid, over-stimulated garage anthem.
  • Tracklist
      A Listen to My 45 B Ghost Baby
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