- Breakbeat techno or hip-house? Maybe not a usual dilemma, but Paul Woolford's latest single, for London-based Phonica record store and label, toes the line between the two, taking his recent, somewhat slinky sound ("Bloodline") and unscrewing it just a little bit more so everything sounds dangerously wonky.
"Can't Do Without," with its slamming kick and shuddering static chords feigns Berghain-associated toughness. But about a minute in, a loud synth wail signals the rather abrupt entrance of audacious, well-oiled breaks that loosely orbit around the central rhythm, a disorienting effect that duels for attention with the song's less challenging thump. The violent motion sickness is accentuated by a playful descending bassline and an oddly-timed vocal sample that stutters and echoes in swathes across the track. "Bareback" isn't quite as light-hearted, slithering through a bed of tape hiss before exploding into wandering percussive shards and ravey chord stabs that act as the ghost of the lumbering stomp from "Can't Do Without."
Tracklist A Can't Do Without
B Bareback