- A playful, retro-minded record that channels the chaotic energy of the Motherbeat from across the Atlantic.
- I have a knee-jerk reaction to dance music purists. You know the type I'm talking about: show me a picture of a middle-aged white DJ using a single-ear headphone and wearing a beret and I'm already rolling my eyes back into my head. What is it that makes Eris Drew and Octo Octa—who famously share a love of hardware, vinyl and decades-old house music—hit different, then?
Unlike purists, these DJs—and those they champion on trans-centric label T4T LUV NRG, like Glaswegian Gynoid74—always tie in an element of chaos, magic and playfulness into their otherwise retro leanings. Gynoid74's Shroom, for instance, is a referential EP made on vintage gear, sure, but it doesn’t treat its inspirations like museum pieces.
Take "Approaching," a Mr. Fingers-esque jam session that seems to hollow out the cowbell melody from "Let The Music (Use You)" and corrodes it until it moves with a healthy crunch. Or "Rain," a corrugated hardcore track whose breaks, piano lead and vocal all scuffle with each other, descending into chaos before reaching exhaustion. If that sounds too daunting, there's also an obvious banger in the title track—little more than a perfect combination of chest-crushing drums and Carl Craig-style, erratically pitched buzzes—which I could see someone like DJ Holographic pulling out to rock a steaming dancefloor.
It wouldn't be fair to Gynoid74 to just list reference points, though. As indebted as she is to Chicago, Detroit and UK hardcore, this EP carries most of all the torch of its T4T LUV NRG peers. This free and careless spirit is exemplified in "Chromatic," a beatdown-like track whose heavily-swung drums could shake bassbins the same way its intoxicating lead could soundtrack a leisurely stroll, foraging for the coveted shrooms.
Tracklist01. Shroom
02. Rain
03. Approaching
04. Chromatic