- The title of DJ Spider's latest series offers a hint as to his working method. The New York eccentric takes house and techno and tinkers with their DNA, creating hybrids of unusual viciousness. In his work with Franklin De Costa—the latest in a long line of collaborators including Hakim Murphy and Marshallito—his chosen genome appears to be peak-time functional techno. On this second set of Genetically Modified Tracks, the basslines are gaunt and the percussion well-muscled, but the grooves have a maniacal swing, as if a few molecules of New York house found their way into the lab.
"Second Bass" is packed with character and mischief in spite of its simple construction. "Consume"'s B-movie vocal, ominously declaring, "It came without warning," further amplifies the sense of cartoonish dread. "Coffee Break," meanwhile, suggests that Spider and De Costa take their studio time-outs in a New York sewer. Over a restless broken-beat groove, its grotty synths rattle and echo through an enormous dank space. It's a welcome change of tone, even if Spider's experiments have yielded better results elsewhere.
TracklistA1 Second Bass
B1 Consume
B2 Coffee Break