- What is the Rowdent logo supposed to be exactly? A rat in a Hazmat suit? It looks like something you might see after humans annihilate themselves with nuclear weapons, and even the scavengers that remain have to defend against radioactivity. You could easily imagine "Cjords" as the sound of the mushroom cloud—it's a disorienting room-shaker that pushes rattling, in-your-face drums and a weird reggae vocal sample underneath skyward synths. I mean there's dance floor bombs and there's dance floor bombs: I would advise clubgoers not to look directly into the speakers if someone drops this.
Whoever Rowdent is, they/he/she certainly doesn't like to waste time—this is already the second EP for Soul Mekanik's Wonk label, which only got up and running last year. The other tracks here nicely expand on the sound of "Cjords" without repeating its Wagner-sized theatrics, taking crispy, deepish house and adding a bit more crunchy metallic sheen along with a tinge of post-apocalyptic menace.
"Lurch" is a deeper, more locked-in affair than its face-melting predecessor, but maintains an edgy, wartime air, using a peppy house groove as grounds for a number of tweaky rave-y bugouts that seem to rain down on the track from above, like mortar fire. A brief synth bleep morphs from a pleasant whistle-like ornament to an air-raid siren. "Machine Drummer" completes the EP's trajectory from rave monsters to house bounce—gone are the synthesizer attacks, what remains sounds a bit like Crosstown with a slightly more aggressive sound palette and the FX boxes on red alert, a dubby work-out full of bang and clatter, like misfiring lasers and kitchen utensils hitting the ground.
Tracklist 01. Cjords
02. Lurch
03. Machine Drummer