- Adam Freeland moved away from breaks and onto post-Justice dance rock last year when the movement started seeping into all manner of electronic music. Suddenly tracks like ‘Waters of Nazareth’ had made “techno” cool again for everyone who’d chucked out their Chemical Brothers and Prodigy CDs ages ago. It was a smart move for Freeland, too. He did a pretty good job making the genre megastore-friendly with disc one of his Global Underground 32: Mexico City mix, and, like his single off that album, 'Silverlake Pills', The Hate EP tries to ape the delicate balance of sinister-but-soaring, insistent-but-unsure that Justice pulls off so effortlessly.
It’s an elusive sound that is often imitated but hardly ever nailed. And while ‘Silverlake Pills’ was a commendable effort, 'Hate' is just a total washout. Like the name suggests, the track is as legitimately “punktronic” as a final project some kid who works at Hot Topic would hand in for his community college audio production class.
Even if with its hands-in-the-air party vibe, Freeland’s fans knew that 'Pills' was a significant departure from his solid back catalogue in breaks, but 'Hate' is even further off the radar: it’s absolutely heads-down—and not in a good way. Freeland’s penchant for punchy, live-sounding drums remains intact, with the other primary element being a rigid, pumping bass growl. Of course it’s spliced, diced, filtered, fucked with and Justice to a †, but by now these twists and turns have been so thoroughly calculated that it makes you yawn and stretch rather than wonder what’ll happen next.
Tack-ons 'Where’s Your God Now?' and 'Glowsticks' fare better, but not by much. The former nicely beefs up the drums, and the scattered claps and concert-styled finish are a nice touch, but the guitar riff is obnoxious and stale. Without a killer bassline the track never really blasts off. 'Glowsticks', on the other hand, has a richer sound and a clearer focus but its ambitions are cramped—it’s got warmup DJ closeout filler written all over it.
There are enough good parts on The Hate EP to make one track that’s really spectacular; the problem is that they’re all scattered among the awful lead single and two so-so B-sides. If Justice, Surkin, Riton et al. are the real pirates gutting the staid standards of electronic music, the best that copycats like Freeland and his Marine Parade cohort Alex Metric seem to manage is Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride or the movies, take your pick). Take off those silly eyepatches and just stick to the DJ decks, dudes.
TracklistA1 Hate
B1 Where's Your God Now?
B2 Glowsticks