- Leo Zero is the kind of artist whose prolific output makes you suspect he must not sleep very much. Or else he's gone and built himself a trade school, like a Dutch master. How else do you explain the steady string of remixes for the likes of Florence & The Machine and Hercules & Love Affair, the giveaway edits and original productions? Not to mention the detailed website, personal label and string of design credits? If the Let's Go EP is any indication Leo might just be a fairly amped person. Were I playing sonic sommelier, I'd match the record with a six-pack of Four Loko. The tunes here are three of a pair, house played bouncy and brash, with big compressed drums and a general crunked-up hands-in-the-air vibe.
On the title cut Leo's bent on rabble-rousing, tossing in twisted bits of synth and playing the FX box fast and loose. The tune circuits with attention-deficit speed through bursts of drainpipe delay, cavern echo and filter twists, which gives things a nice live-work out feel. Certainly useful if the crowd looks like it could use some waking up. "This Is God" is equally dense and favors a '90s vibe with a teaspoon of tweak and some old-fashioned snare rolls. The vocal here might represent a bit of a problem: While it's taken for granted that vocal samples in house are often reduced to either slogan-sized affirmations or curious non sequiturs, here it doesn't exactly move the spirit for some reason, even as the track succeeds in moving the body. "Jackin" is the most revved tune here and perhaps the standout, its wound-tight drum loop is concise enough to give Leo's Basement Jaxx-ish hyperactivity enough breathing room to bounce off the walls.
Tracklist 01. Let's Go
02. This Is God
03. Jackin