Stryke: Twigs
Droid Recordings

On this EP appetizer to his upcoming full-length The Narrowest of Paths (Plastic City), Kingston, Jamaica-born and Florida resident Greg “Stryke” Chin drops two heavy-hitters and invites Minnesotan compadre Dustin Zahn over for some remix action. Chin lays it on thick and fast in “Dalmation Days” by assembling blubbering melodies, handclaps, and astral bleeps over a funkily loping techno swing that's dizzying and infectious. The eight-minute “Twigs” starts reservedly with simmering burble but rapidly swells into a techno raver goosed by swizzle-stick synth sizzle and back-beat hi-hats. Stryke slowly scales a mountain here as the attack escalates and the wiry synth motif burrows a hole through one's skull. House guest Zahn digs into his wild “Twigs” remix by stripping the original to its skeleton and clothing it in old-school techno goosestep crowned by a marching whistling tune and myriad other clackety clap.

May 2008