CacheFlowe: Cache, Stacks & Queues
Plastic Sound Supply

Containing originals and remixes by Machinedrum and Starkey, CacheFlowe's third solo release is a thirty-minute EP that extends the Colorado-based producer's glitch-hop style into dubstep and dub realms. In opener “Flowebot,” rapper Brer Rabbit of the Flobots (“Cache, bring that beat back”) navigates a path through a bubbly mix of synth squawk, bass wobble, and glitchy breakbeats, giving the tune's hip-hop-tinged dubstep a bit of a B-boy vibe in the process. Starkey's remix turns “Flowebot” into an amped-up, electro-tinged fireball while Machinedrum's snappy treatment deepens the track's crunch with a bulldozing kick drum (a vocal-less instrumental version of “Flowebot” also appears at EP's end). Elsewhere, CacheFlowe powers the double-timed “Oh! Dub” with slamming snares and seasons it with future-ska flavour, and offsets stuttering breakbeats and bright analogue synths in “Crunch Dub” with swollen wobble. “Imperial Bombin'” couples a mangled vocal croak by Dickie Cee (waxing upon technology and mass destruction) with a hard-hitting, downtempo pulse and dive-bombing sounds. In this case, it's the originals that are more noteworthy with the remixes coming across as secondary add-ons, while the hybrid, genre-skewing nature of the new material suggests CacheFlow's been soaking up Skream, Benga, and Flying Lotus during the past year or so.

August 2009