Lazer Sword - Lazer Sword

  • Share
  • From the Dirtybird crew's wacky tech house to Flying Lotus' warped beats, it's hard to pin down a "California sound." Even more baffling is the music produced by San Francisco duo Lazer Sword, whose eponymous album is a sturdy blend of hip-hop, old-school electro and mainstream dubstep. Under that banner, Bryant Rutledge (AKA Low Limit) and Antaeus Roy (AKA Lando Kal) have digested five years of what North American suburban kids call electro nowadays, i.e. the Ed Banger in-yr-face ethos filtered through A-Trak's hip-hop sensibility and Rusko's immediacy. And if you've seen their live performances, you know it makes for a dizzying and mind-blowing experience. Thankfully, the duo has been able to translate that very ebullience in the context of a studio album. Lazer Sword starts and ends with the surprisingly melodic "Tar" and "Beast's Reprise," both filled with arpeggiated synths and engaging melodies. But most of the album is in line with the post-Human After All school of distorted, heavily filtered French house: "Agrokrag," "Web Swag" and "Def Work" are all heavily reminiscent of SebastiAn or the latter Oizo, and "Surf News" has more in common with the kind of reverential house forged by French wonder boy Surkin. "Machine," on the other hand, is a successful nod to vintage electro ala Cybotron and Dopplereffekt, while "4Loko" and "Batman" are the kind of IDM you'd think Squarepusher would unleash if he were on Ativan. It might appear too derivative on paper to some, but it is when Lazer Sword indulge their inner ghetto affiliations and mix it with bass-heavy winks that their production approaches originality. On "I'm Gone," a more leftfield hip-hop number featuring Californian rapper Turf Talk, they even come up with the kind of futuristic sounding R&B Timbaland or The Neptunes used to produce in their sleep a decade ago. Just like the other tracks featuring guest vocalists (M. Sayyid on "Topflites," Myka 9 on "Cosmic Ride"), this is where Lazer Sword feels more genuinely comfortable with their various influences. But while the Californian duo might be wearing its sonic affiliations and inspirations on its sleeve, the way they adroitly combine them makes for an involving listen that doesn't require the live context to make sense. How it relates to the definition of the American west coast's electronic music sound, though, is a different story altogether.
  • Tracklist
      01. Tar 02. Agrokrag 03. Surf News 04. I'm Gone 05. Batman 06. Topflites 07. 4 Loko 08. Machine 09. Web Swag 10. Skybox 11. Def Work 12. Fubu 13. Owl Tats 14. Cosmic Ride 15. Beast's Reprise
RA