- Chrissy Murderbot's first release of 2012 replaces the rough hip-hop palette of footwork from last year's uneven Women's Studies with the antiseptic shine of techno.
"Friendship" holds onto the timestretched-and-sliced vocals, but everything else feels cautious, avoiding the blitzkrieg of his earlier work. Even while the footwork bass cloud tolls underneath, the drums cough in halftime, weaving in and out of passages of cascading synth. It fits well into what producers like Distal are doing—this cleaned-up, uncluttered vision of footwork—though it's not particularly distinctive. "Bionic Pengin" is made from the same recipe, sent through a wringer of flanging and phasing. It's as if he's mincing modern Chicago footwork with the more extreme side of vintage Chicago house, and it too erupts into gorgeous synthesizer trills.
Legowelt is drafted in for a remix of "Friendship" that drowns the original in sepia filters, throwing iridescent organ lines and sputtering acid splotches on top, glossy and jagged all at the same time. Its bubbly sense of melody outdoes the original's tepid build-and-release for an EP highlight, while SumSun turns "Bionic Penguin" into a bloated orchestral fanfare with busy snares that can't seem to find their way comfortably around the track.
Tracklist A1 Bionic Penguins
A2 Friendship
B1 Bionic Penguins (Sumsun Rmx)
B2 Friendship (Legowelt Rmx)