- Shogun Audio's artists seem to like the idea of crossovers, but none traverse worlds as easily as Jeroen Snik. He's a drum & bass producer but his most notable record is probably Xylophobia / Minimal Dub, a dubstep 12-inch. His DJ sets often end up at 170 BPM but start from a place more informed by techno, and he moves so naturally through that tempo range that you barely even notice a change. Though he's had a few dalliances with pop (notably teaming up with Robert Owens on his first LP, Under The Ice), Snik's M.O. is club music, which separates him from his labelmates. Albums on Shogun are often defined by what they do differently—halftime R&B on Alix Perez's Chroma Chords or twilight pop on SpectraSoul's Delay No More, for instance—but Snik doesn't seem interested in that. Instead, Entropy is a typical dance music long-player executed with cutthroat efficiency: a few ambient interludes as palette cleansers, a handful of vocal tracks and a slew of no-nonsense bangers.
Entropy is a bang-on title for this record—it feels like Snik has taken the core of his sound and smashed it against a wall. The LP careens through tempos without much regard for flow. Nearly every moment is exciting, including the heart-palpitating shudder of "Neutralize" and the higher-and-higher refrains of "Amp."
If there's any constant on Entropy, it's aggression. The album frequently dips into the kind of midrange-heavy fare that Shogun seems to be inching towards, but Snik's tight rhythms and sound design keep everything in check—he won't let a big bassline rip unless he's earned it. If there's anything the LP doesn't do, however, it's push the ever-restless producer in new directions. Only the late-album cuts "Acidic" and the more soulful strains of "Hani" really show a new side of Snik.
Though it may lack the initial shock value of Under The Ice, Entropy has an unfailing, hold-on-to-your-seat momentum that arguably makes it the better record. It's not easy to make an album full of club tracks that doesn't get tiring, but Snik attacks the genre from enough angles to keep you on your toes. Snik has described Entropy as "the future of this sound," and though it mostly sticks to established ideas, it certainly does sound futuristic.
Tracklist01. Entropy 1
02. Problem feat. Skittles
03. Isolation
04. Mechanisms
05. Superimpozed feat. Sarah Hezzen
06. Entropy 2
07. Hyper Velocity feat. Sp:mc
08. Neutralize
09. Will You Be Mine feat. Sarah Hezzen
10. Amp
11. Entropy 3
12. Acidic
13. The Edge feat. Metropolis
14. Want It
15. Hani
16. Entropy 4