Schmeichel: Alteration EP
Defrostatica Records
The track titles on this Schmeichel EP might appear merely functional (e.g., “Uhhhwheeee”), but the material itself is anything but. The one-time rock drummer and now electronic producer makes good on his debut for the Leipzig-based Defrostatica imprint with five tracks that alchemize bass music, footwork, juke, and breakbeat into head-spinners of a particularly ear-catching kind.
There's a slow-burn quality to some of it, the opener “Evidence” a case in point. Inaugurated by a softly oscillating drone, it comes into focus slowly until hi-hats, sub-bass, and thumping kicks enter to bring the heat. Building on that, skittering snares and soulful female vocal yelps bring a soulful twist to the punchy production, which Schmeichel caps with wild, stutter-funk mangling of the vocal content, the title included. As trippy is “IKillWantU,” seven minutes of cut-up vocal wipes, hiccups, and smears the producer amplifies with rumbling bass pulses, typewriter-like hammerings, and steady rimshot cracks. Shifting gears, “Talkin” weaves the soulful warbling of male chanting and what sounds like a Denzel sample in amongst dollops of bell percussion and restless beatsmithing, while “DoinIt” dips its toes into the swampy end of the pool with a slow, sludgy pulse, faintly flickering synth flares, and a male voice stab. Don't let those throwaway titles fool you: clubby Alteration surely is, but it's artful also and often dizzyingly so.April 2018