- Where Modeselektor's 50 Weapons has fledged this year with no apparent loyalty to genre—dubstep, techno, house and all the respective grey areas included—parent Monkeytown Records has remained fairly planted in electro. Things seem to be changing, however: Californian-based eLan brought his sunny glitch sounds to the label, while latest signing Lazer Sword stirs the pot further still.
Electronic hip-hop is the most reductive description for Low Limit and Lando Kal's Lazer Sword outfit before throwing down—for good or ill—qualitative additions like future, or even their own facetious "blap" term. Starting with "Sounds Sane," UK bass components are packed into a sci-fi capsule complete with ticking Ramadanman / Pearson Sound bites, garage peals and moody synths. They make it their own, however, through robo-filtering and a signature clustering of orchestrated computer sounds. "Klock" on the other hand is more funnelled. Riding an ominous synth line and clean mechanical percussion into an acidic breakdown, it comes out the other end sounding slightly detuned in its discomforting and yet melodic conclusion. That's exactly what I like about them. Their dark and sometimes jarring breed of dance music carries the apocalyptic sense of dread of early techno into a thoroughly modern context. Sounds Sane / Klock is a fine example of inbred bass, and one deserving of the "future" tag—with none of the stigma attached.
Tracklist 01. Sounds Sane
02. Klock