- "Slick" is one of those words that trigger wildly different responses depending on your musical preferences. If you prize the gritty human touch, "slick" is the ultimate pejorative—a permanent MOR sinkhole where inspiration turns to product. But dance music has its own logical precepts, and the basslines proffered by Trondheim's Slick Shoota on this short EP glow like vivid underwater light, their wet glide communicating live-wire eagerness, not tedious mastery. They're his way of showing he's a fan.
That's good in concentrated doses: 8 Bit Beauty's frenetic quality can make you grateful it's so brief. (With the digital bonus, its six cuts breeze by in 18 minutes.) There's space here even when the post-juke beats and vocal samples are busily cutting time into uneasy units, as on the dubby "Eye Turn Red" or the stutter-syllable-powered "Love You You You" and "8 Bit Beauty." "Hit the Flow," featuring the charmingly monikered 5kin&bone5, drops dubstep bass groan like candy wrappers rather than bombs, while "Beby" somehow squeezes a 2-step garage feel out of juke-paced canned claps. It's even sensuous, a little bit—something the lubricious production highlights, not dampens.
Tracklist 01. Love You You You
02. 8 Bit Beauty
03. Hit The Flow feat. 5kinAndbone5
04. Eye Turn Red
05. Beby