Barnt - His Name

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  • On a YouTube rip from his BBC Radio 1 show, you can hear Benji B say, "Brutal," over "Chappell," Barnt's A-side on his head-turning new Hinge Finger 12-inch. "That one makes the club sound like the world is ending. Maximum impact in the club." It'd be tough to describe "Chappell" any better than that. Daniel Ansorge has crafted a tune capable of blasting the floor into submission. Rather than max out the toolbox to do it, he's grabbed just a couple of implements—the tick-tock of a drum machine, a single note played on a synth patched to mammoth proportions—and positively juiced them, using compositional playfulness and simple knob-twists to keep things interesting. Its biggest moments are actually its simplest, when each of its elements line up in lockstep over a rhythm you're certain to be tapping on every surface after you hear it. Less isn't just more here—less is everything. "Under His Own Name But Also As Sir" feels technicolor by comparison, though it's only brighter by a few brushstrokes. Barnt's drums are still mercilessly impactful, but they bang away beneath warbly synth notes. Where "Chappell" is militant, the mood here is haunting and mournful, if epically mixed and severely twisted. That it's the EP's softer side is telling—both sides of His Name are among Hinge Finger's most razor-sharp and, as with many of the tracks Joy Orbison and Will Bankhead have signed these last few years, they'll keep battering clubs long after they're released.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Chappell B1 Under His Own Name But Also As Sir
RA