- Inventive club edits of Jam City, Ariana Grande and Beethoven.
- LOFT has a knack for making malleable club tracks. Take "Oh Well, We're All Fucked Now," off her excellent 2017 EP Three Settlements Four Ways, where noisy frequencies, muted percussion and hopeful melodies roll together with the flow of a Rube Goldberg machine. The Manchester producer's ability to both seek out and craft these unexpected yet natural rhythms also makes her particularly formidable in the DJ booth. Affiliated with local crews like Mutualism and boygirl, whose parties and edits continue to push forward a distinctive crossover of pop and experimental club music, LOFT's risks in the mix pay off. In her 2018 Boiler Room set, where many of these tracks appeared, she played her own Destiny's Child edit, ZULI's "Trigger Finger" and a Ryoji Ikeda track in the space of a few minutes to an appropriately dazed crowd. Later, in the midst of a raucous moment that featured wall-shaking versions of Madonna and Charli XCX, she announced: "It would appear we've entered the diva portion of the evening… someone make a George Michael edit and I will play the fuck out of it!"
She takes all this energy with her into Ell Oh Eff Tea Too Oh Won Ate, a collection of edits made last year. These types of blends are particularly powerful on the dance floor—the feel-good, highly compressed vocals of chart-topping pop singers, combined with the visceral pull of heavy, distorted bass, lends itself to a special kind of dopamine hit. LOFT's at her best when she undoes the neatness of the pop vocals, twisting them into beautifully grotesque structures on cuts like "Femmebot [Sickening Aching Stretch]" and "In 2 U." The stadium-like qualities of Charli XCX and Ariana Grande's vocals are blistered by effects.
While the 19-track compilation varies in momentum, even the songs that could be considered tools are quite strong. There's the fast-paced "Moonlighting," which, while quite straightforward compared to the rest of the record, has a bouncy bassline and what sounds like a video game rendition of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Nevertheless, one can imagine a room full of people hopping up and down to it at 4 AM. "Spookie One" finds the X-Files theme cheekily echoing among Headie One's "Banter On Me" and the soft smack of Jam City's drums. And at the end of the record, "Thank U, Next [Salford Girls Club Flip]" pays homage to Baltimore club, the titular song by Grande and Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" for a truly perfect pop edit.
There are a few standout tracks that are beautifully composed, no matter the context. LOFT's take on Blink 182's "Feeling This" manipulates Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge's vocals, turning them wormy and technological, so the focus is on the strong, whizzing percussion of the first half, then the dazzling, evocative melody in the second. On the drumless "Dissociative Edit" of "Filton Recal," another track from Three Settlements Four Ways, the melody trembles as though being heard underwater, giving it a cavernous ambience. It's a surprising respite from the density of the surrounding tracks, and yet another example of LOFT's ability to thread calm through the midst of chaos.
Tracklist01. TELL ME WHAT U THINK BOUT ME
02. This World Is Sick [Loft's Heart Feels It] [s/o 2 ic3peak 5eva]
03. Drilltheboat [Aaliyah x Moneyevery x Madara]
04. Samileanspaces.wav
05. Maxim Elysia And Trippie
06. Femmebot [Sickening Aching Stretch]
07. Filton [Disocciative Edit]
08. Tha Ghost Life 2k19 [Jam City x Mark Pritchard]
09. F E E L I N G T H I S
10. Spookie One [Jam City x Headie One x Mark Frost]
11. Lemme C [I Made This While Getting Drunk In A Hotel With Acre's Mum Edit]
12. Thenn Cumbs Dudleh
13. Break It Them Also [Jana Rush x Evol]
14. Moonlighting
15. Boiz
16. In 2 U
17. I Know Tsundoku [lxc x Odeko]
18. Thank U, Next [Salford Girls Club Flip]
19. iinnnn mm m my y yy ww wwaa y yyy