- Two Shell's cotton candy universe of spine-tingling hooks and weirdo processing gets deeper, stranger and more satisfying on their latest EP.
- On "Ghosts," the opening track of Two Shell's new EP, staccato synth stabs build up to the heavens until a big, rolling bassline erupts out of nowhere. "Welcome," murmurs a robot chipmunk. This is it: you have arrived at Shell City. Better buckle up.
After capturing the hearts of the dance music community with the rapturous "home" earlier this year, Two Shell have been getting even zanier, carrying themselves with a sense of humor that gives you the feeling they're laughing along with you. Infatuated with robot voices, high-pitched vocal samples and practical jokes, the UK duo are happy to keep building the mystique—tongue firmly in cheek—which includes sending in masked impostors to dance behind the decks to pre-recorded mixes with high production values. Their behind-the-scenes approach to larger-than-life bangers skewers the industry obsession with artist personalities, to the joy of some and the bafflement of others.
Icons, the deepest dive into Shell City yet, proves that the duo are still more substance than style. Having teased a handful of these tracks on their website over a couple of months, this record feels primed and ready, more calculated, more coy, more club-focused and—all gags aside—the most serious display of their talent as a production duo to date. Chopped 'n' screwed trip-hop style melodies teeter on the edge of hyperpop on "Mainframe," layered with all the hallmarks of the duo's sound palette: chipmunk vocals, heavily phased processing and beefy yet chewed-up drums.
Building on the vocal-oriented delirium of "home," "Memory" is the most hands-in-the-air track here, though a little more understated than its predecessor. Another monstrous bassline and tight, half-time drums keep the track grounded, while rich percussion additions make it sound fresh and chromatic, like a virtual locomotive breezing through a high tech cityscape in a video game. We've heard these sonic ideas before, but Two Shell aren't trying to rewrite the rulebook so much as hone in on a sound and make it more cartoonishly outsized than ever before.
There's a loose artificial intelligence theme running through Icons, with robotic voices—perhaps stand-ins for the producers hiding behind their bucket hats—who introduce different sections, like loading screens in between larger scenes. "Hold on to your touchpads and let's go," says one. It's gleefully silly, but all the more memorable, and only adds to the EP's cinematic scale. A synth guitar—think Discovery-era Daft Punk—jams with big synths on "Pods," while bumping post-dubstep and garage flavors mingle on "Dust," a standout with an addictive rhythm section embellished by more wild volume oscillation and chopped vocals. Icons is the kind of EP that leaves a more indelible mark than your usual 12-inch, as the duo hold court in their dayglo kingdom and take stock of everything they've accomplished so far, and hint at where they might take it in the future.
Tracklist01. Ghosts
02. Pods
03. Dust
04. Memory
05. Mainframe