The drum fill that kicks off the second drop crams something like sixteen hits into a space most producers would fill with four, and that’s the exact moment “Whiplash” earns its name. Skybreak lives for this kind of hyper-detailed, faintly deranged sound design, and teaming with longstoryshort tightens it into something you can actually move to rather than only marvel at. It’s deep dubstep with a bad glitch habit, half-time weight down low and a top layer that stutters and skips like a scratched CD fighting for its life. The bass in the first drop has a wet, elastic snap I keep rewinding purely to hear it flex again. There’s so much happening that the first listen is pure sensory overload; it took me three passes to even hear the melody hiding under all the mechanical clatter, and it turns out to be a good one. This is music for people who like their electronic stuff a little broken and a little too much, built by two producers who plainly love showing off. I don’t mind being shown off to when the showing off is this much fun.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.