- As experimental club music grows out of its broken-glass-and-explosions phase, young producers are finding other ways to breathe life into their beats. While some DJs riff on localized genres and scenes, others dig deep into their personal backgrounds. Take the members of Club Chai, who craft tracks around Armenian and Turkish samples. DJ Plead, a Lebanese-Australian producer from Melbourne, works in this way, turning Middle Eastern-inspired drum patterns and melodies into dance floor dynamite.
In the wrong hands a track like "Get In Circle," built around a snaky woodwind instrument, might sound contrived, but Plead cuts the riff as masterfully as a classic house organ vamp. He programs percussion in patterns that seem abstract but come off intuitively funky. "Giz" is stark yet powerful thanks to its double-kick pattern and a two-note bassline that lands like a shove, while "M11" has the floor-shaking heft of trap without the clichéd hi-hats. Moments like these, where DJ Plead alters the fundamentals of dance music subgenres, are especially impressive. Just listen to "DVE," a complex hub of jiggling drum beats, careful shakers and nervous synths that percolates for a whole two minutes before the drop finally lands. When it does, it's more of a snap than a seismic shift. DJ Plead's tracks are too confident and sleek for anything so heavy-handed.
Tracklist01. DVE
02. Get In Circle
03. M11
04. Giz
05. Lee's Shuffle