Four names on one track usually spells committee, but “Terminal” somehow sounds like a single idea rather than four people negotiating. ShockOne is the veteran in the credits and you can hear his fingerprints on the sound design — that crisp, slightly metallic drum work — but it’s Hanne Mjøen’s vocal that gives the thing a spine. She sings the hook with a flat, almost bored cool that plays beautifully against how frantic the drop gets at 1:35. This is Monstercat doing what Monstercat does when it’s on: a big electronic drop with enough melodic weight that it doesn’t feel disposable the second it ends. The bass patch has a rubbery bounce, and there’s a little vocal chop that ping-pongs across the stereo field in the second half that’s genuinely clever. It runs a touch long — you could lose thirty seconds of the outro and nobody would notice — but the core of it hits hard. Mjøen is the reason to come back; she keeps threatening to break into a bigger performance and never quite does, and that withholding is what makes it stick. A properly good collab that earns its four-way credit.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.