- Seattle-via-Oakland artist Nelson Bean is one of those experimental producers who likes to interact with the formalism of dance music without giving in to it. It's a style that's already resulted in excellent techno-informed releases like Dream Interlock and Thought Of Two. For his first EP of 2015, Black Hat moves to MOTOR—a subsidiary of the experimental imprint Debacle Records that takes a similarly noncommittal stance towards dance music—and offers some of his most pared-down and focused material yet.
Though it comes in around 120 BPM, "Willow" feels informed by classic dubstep; by the time the tuba-like bassline hits, it sounds like a Coki 12-inch played at 33 RPM. "Elm" is another dubby twister, this time with long, slow chords that blanket the background, while "Sequoia" slows things down even further, an anxious mass of synths that inches forward. MOTOR drafts in two remixers to whip the tracks into dance floor shape. Prostitutes' take on "Elm" builds things layer by layer into one of his usual percussive monstrosities—it's so shaky that it feels like one misplaced kick could topple the whole thing. Bankie Phones, meanwhile, takes the creeping sludge of "Sequoia" and remodels it into crawling techno. With raw source material on one side and strong remixes on the other, Willow is the best release on MOTOR yet.
Tracklist01. Willow
02. Elm
03. Sequoia
04. Elm (Prostitutes Black Hole Remix)
05. Sequoia (Bankie Phones Emojinal Problems Remixxx)