- Londoner Al Green debuted as Boddika with two 12-inches of jittery, compact Detroit-style electro before the "You Got Me" single on his own NonPlus+ label revealed a more expansive side to the Instra:mental member's sound. Green's second Boddika release for Loefah's Swamp81 continues to wrest open his electro-driven sound into longer, more complex tracks.
The four tracks here aren't too far from previous Boddika material but there's something distinctly playful afoot—an attempt to "have more fun with the music" according to Green. "2727" surges and spirals through filters, dodging odd vocal samples and revving excitedly in between synth-driven breakdowns, the more spacious atmosphere sounding like Green cut some air holes into "Electron." With snares unpredictably bunching up at the end of bars and beats liquefying into squelch, "Rubba" shares some characteristics with the recently released Instra:mental album and "Sometimes" takes the same elements and plugs them into a stiff, militant house template.
But even with all the open space and added breakdowns, it's hard to call these tracks more "fun." That's where "Soul What" comes in. Instantly indelible to any punter who encounters it, the track starts off in typical red-alert arpeggio mode before blindly diving into bucking waves of sub-bass as an insistent "oh yeah!" vocal sample blissfully rides the groove, punctuated perfectly by handclaps. It's enormous, steamrolling, and above all fun, and it's the shining star on an already solid EP that confirms Al Green as a force to be reckoned with.
Tracklist A 2727
B Sometimes
C Soul What
D Rubba