Herrmutt Lobby: Haters Gonna Hate
Eat Concrete

Herrmutt Lobby throws down some serious low-end head-nod on its third release (one under the Bretzel Zoo alias) for the Netherlands-based Eat Concrete imprint. Lovers of Flying Lotus, Rustie, and like-minded producers will find much to like about Haters Gonna Hate, especially when its four cuts ooze such tripped-out beat science. “Alt Of Ctrl” sets the tone with five minutes of synth-drenched hip-hop, after which claps, skeletal beats, percussion, and echo-drenched noises lend “Computer Club” a blunted future-dub aura. “Major Grubert” transplants the band's sound from Jamaica to Africa in wedding bleepy synth figures and smears to a bumping tribal groove, and even manages to sneak in a smidgen of fusion in its melodic material. The cheekily titled “Camel Toe Hoes & Other No-No's” offers Herrmutt Lobby's twisted take on the samba; hijacked by jungle animal noises, the tune can't help but come off as the EP's oddest ear-twister. Hatched in 2005, the Brussels-based collective doesn't do things easily as it apparently uses “no loops, no sequences, no backing tracks and no groove machines,” preferring to do everything live. What results is a fresh and unpredictable hybrid of downtempo funk and hip-hop.

January 2013