- Sometimes an EP just makes sense. This is one of those cases. Last year's Proximity One: Narrative of a City offered a crisp, expansive overview of LA's post-FlyLo bass contingent, so siccing a handful of them back on their fellow contributors expands the purview further. And since everything gets stretched like taffy anyway, keeping it to five songs is the right way to go, if only in terms of keeping things straight.
TOKiMONSTA's original "Cigarette Lust" chops up some airy strings, guitar and live-sounding snare. The "90% Wake" version threads those strings through a cheap electro track that also recalls early Prefuse 73. Teebs' "Wind Loop" builds a few layers of percussion, guitar and field noises into a seamless wisp; BearClaw imitates a music box going on the fritz, eventually dueting with a Casio going on the fritz. Dam-Funk's "A Day at the Carnival" is throwback synth-funk hearkening to the smooth L.A. days of Solar Records; Benedek tweaks it for kids used to disruption, playing sample-slivers back almost randomly over a bumpier groove.
Dr. Strangeloop's "Strange Utopia" is a twee, drill and bassy showpiece—pretty here, outlandish everywhere else. Lawrence Grey's version seems to play, as "hits," portions of the original recordings over a jackin' house track with a crispy-wafer buzz-tone persistently at its center. Daedelus's "Off Angles Edges" skitters and skates, rhythmically, but Sahy Uhns' closing remix turns it into hurtling abstract techno that seems to blur in slow motion even as it unfurls.
Tracklist01. TOKiMONSTA - Cigarette Lust (90% Wake Mix)
02. Teebs - Wind Loop (BearClaw's Cicada Remix)
03. Dâm-Funk - A Day At the Carnival (Benedek's Freak Show Mix)
04. Dr. Strangeloop - Strange Utopia (Lawrence Grey's Rat Hole Remix)
05. Daedelus - Off Angles Edges (Sahy Uhns' Tension Remeditation)