With Muscle Memories, the Brooklyn-based Space Is The Place label head, Astrolith, delivers a five track EP that embodies the ethos of his fledgling Brooklyn/Baltimore imprint. Blending the sounds of the warehouse and the club, Astrolith flexes the strengths of techno and club music's rich history, while simultaneously deconstructing it and blazing his own trail for the future.
The title track opens with a clear nod to the techno the old school only to build into a driving, guttural bass progressions, crashing snares, and manic arpeggiated synth lines akin to those championed by Mr. Oizo, Boys Noize, and Maelstrom. On lead single, Give It To Me featuring rising-NYC rapper, Cakes Da Killa, Astrolith revamps the sound of modern club music by leading the listener into a den of sparse tribal percussion, snaking drone synths, and heavy club kicks, all of which pump beneath Cakesâ rapid-fire flow of witty lyricism. With Kaisha, Astrolith delves into both the club and warehouse simultaneously.
Opening with punching, stutter-step kicks beneath gentle synth progressions, “Kaisha†expands and contracts with disorienting fury between apocalyptic drone synths and overdriven African thumb piano plucks creating a soundscape fitting for a Phillip K. Dick dystopia.
And still, Muscle Memories doesn't let up with the unnerving sonic flurry that is Head Circles - a track that redefines the genre term Future Bass by upping the bass while still retaining the genres lush pads and atmospheric tones. Finally, Muscle Memories closes with More Crab Chips, a monstrous jacked techno closer, complete with ominous organ chords, washed industrial sounds, and unsettling synth stabs that come at the listener from all angles.
If Muscle Memories is the glimpse of what's to come with Space Is The Place Records, the future looks daringly bright.
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